Pro-Immigrant National Council of Jewish Women @ Same Address as Roseland ICE Harm Operation Center
Not a day seems to go by without reports of ICE bringing violence to our NJ communities. (video about today’s Newark NJ 3-car smack up – ICE inspired violence).
One NJ organization that has a history of being sympathetic to the plight of immigrants, issued this recent statement against ICE violence and has roots in helping Jewish women immigrants who had many challenges in the early 20th century has learned that their center now will share a building location with ICE in the midst of a violent repressive ICE crackdown against all of our neighborhoods in NJ.
This FightBackBetter edtior has reached out to the National Council of Jewish Women of Essex County about their misfortune of their Roseland office location now being (or soon to be) the location of an ICE harm and mayhem operations center.
It is no fault of this organization that the landlord has decided to bring ICE into the building of their location. FightBackBetter is sympathetic toward their misfortune.
I have reached out with the below letter and have not heard back as of yet.
Obviously imposing this ICE operations center can have a dampening impact and possibly cause fear of immgrants being aided by NJCW to even visit their offices.
Our news team is continuing to engage with other groups in the wide ranging diaspora of political and social opposition to ICE terror to stop this ICE operation as well as the Death house in Roxbury.
We look forward to more discourse on these controversies and express support for any NJCW effort to oppose having to cohabitate in a building with ICE domestic terrorist operators – be they ”lawyers’ (imagine having ICE lawyer on your resume?) or their operative co-collaborators – FightBackBetter hopes to help maintain the public record to bring THEM to justice!
We are sympathetic to any disruption ICE will certainly bring to their own efforts to oppose ICE terror and call upon the community to join together to force the landlord to break this lease immediately so that NCJW is not disrupted!
ICE operations are totally incompatible with the safety of any immigrant patrons of this benevolent organization stationed there and we need to have greater sensitivity in local governments allowing ICE just to trample into any community and ignore even when those communities are big MAGA supporters like in Roxbury.
Any ICE office today in any neighborhood is equivalent to CIA stations in foreign nations that work to undermine and control – often through violent action the local subject populations. Now all of NJ is the subject population and ICE is building a statewide snitch and surveillance network including permanent structural presence like now in Roseland and now in Roxbury.
This editor has extended his good name in the effort to stop this harm operation from siting in Roseland.
THE LETTER SENT TO NJCW:
—–Original Message—–
From: Bob Witanek <bwitanek@igc.org>
Sent: Feb 20, 2026 3:59 PM
To: <ncjw@ncjwessex.org>
Subject: NJCW / ICE in Building – Roseland
Hello,
My name is Bob Witanek and I edit FighBackBetter news site.
I am opposed to the siting of ICE offices in the building of your Essex Headquarters.
I have read about your group and its roots in support of young Jewish women immigrants in early 1900s whose plight was with many challenges similar to today’s immigrants – of course unique in many ways also. I also note that you continue to advocate for immigrants and have an event planned in April around the topic.
I want to write about the potential style clash of ICE location in the same building as an immigrant advocacy group.
If you have a statement on the topic that is critical of the ICE presence I would be happy to include it.
If you are staying quiet on the matter for whatever social or business reason for the time being I still am interested in writing and want to do that in a way that does not come across critical toward your group.
I would write that while I do not speak for anyone there I can imagine there is some dissonance and that it does seem like a problematic risk – would immigrants come to meet with a pro-immigrant group in a building where ICE has offices? – among other questions.
I appreciate an opportunity to speak with a representative or if you have any communications you would like to share.
I wanted to approach first before I publish something – I can be reached at 908 881 5275 – – I will try to call in and refer to this letter – thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Bob Witanek
ABOUT REFECENCING OF ROSELAND AS HARM OPERATIONS CENTER
Two news outlets at least, Newark Patch and North Jersey have published a false statement by the landlord profiteer representative of ARESCO. They are creating a false narrative with media help that the office space in Roseland will not be used for “operations” which this editor has asserted – they will be.
The party line is that the office space is for “legal services” – firstly ICE does not provide legal serives..
ICE DOES have lawyers and legal staff and usually they cohabitate in operations centers with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents. It is highly unlikely that operations will not be conducted from this location given the accelerating deportation goals ICE has for our state,
The Roxbury facility is said to have capacity up to 1500 but ICE over crowds so it could be as high as 5000. ICE also said it will not be for long term detention and detainees will be moved out of there in 3 to 7 days. Let us just use for purposes of argument caqpacity 1000. Rotating out every 3 days would be 122 rotations in a year – 122K deportations. If it is 7 days, then 52 rotations – 52 K deportations. What kind of naivety does ICE and MAGA think exists that we will sit back and watch infrastructure in place and allow media to lie about it and landlords to lie about it and profit from it . . . and watch good organizations be encroached by the violent organization they speak out against . . . things are getting pushed to hard and something has got to give!
ICE operaties everywhere – in public streets, in private stores and restaurants, at hospitals, on school grounds, in courthouses – everywhere. So we are supposed to believe that the only place that will not be performing ICE operations is the ICE office.
ICE legal staff are indeed engaged in operations as they coordinate arrests for criminal purposes, they meet with ICE agents to advise on legal methods of enforcement, they are involved in disciplining of ICE agents who break laws. The legal staff IS part of ERO – Enforcement Removal Operations and the false line ARESCO is attempting to draw and some local media is echoing is propaganda.
The following is this editor’s response to the Patch report that made that assertion and it also holds up in response to the Northjersey report of that disinformation.
Here is the original FightBackBetter exclusive report on the Roseland operations office.
