Immigration enforcement operations have sharply escalated across New Jersey since late June 2026, with advocates reporting a doubling of calls to tracking hotlines and increased street stops, vehicle stops, and workplace arrests in cities including Passaic, Harrison, North Bergen, Hackensack, Plainfield, and Newark. In mid-July, federal agents conducted days of arrests in Passaic's majority-Latino Monroe Street corridor, detaining more than a dozen people on July 18 alone, including José Efraín Chajón Raxón, a Guatemalan national transferred to the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark. Chajón Raxón died less than four days later at University Hospital in Newark after a medical emergency at Delaney Hall, becoming the second person detained there to die within a month; his death was not announced for weeks under new rules that stop recording deaths occurring shortly after release from ICE custody. Passaic residents describe emptied parks and businesses amid the raids, while community members have organized efforts to monitor ICE activity and support affected families. The escalation follows Congress's approval of an extra $70 billion for ICE in June and the agency's hiring of hundreds of additional officers, with arrests in Passaic rising 4,200% compared to the previous year during the week of the raids.