Three people working at a New Jersey seafood wholesaler were detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on 23 January.
It is unclear whether ICE’s visit to the business was part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed changes to immigration enforcement or part of the previous administration’s immigration policy, though a Trump administration official confirmed similar arrests of at least 538 people on 23 January across the country.
According to ABC News, Luis Janota, the owner of Ocean Seafood Depot in Newark, New Jersey, said that three of his workers were taken into custody by ICE after they were unable to show documentation.
“I feel that we have to be a country of law, but go after bad people not working people," he said. "These are family people; these are people that show up to work every day.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was critical of the detentions, saying in a press release that the officers did not have a warrant yet made the arrests anyway.
"One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned," Baraka said. "This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.’"
Ocean Seafood Depot did not respond to requests for comment from SeafoodSource.
How Trump’s threatened mass deportations will more broadly affect the U.S. seafood industry, which features seasonal foreign workers among its workforce, remains to be seen.
Rabobank Head of Cross-Asset Strategy Christian Lawrence said recently that under the Trump administration, the rate of migration is going to slow.
He explained immigrant labor has been crucial to filling labor shortages in the U.S. since Covid-19, which prompted many older workers to retire early.
If the scale of migration slowing is enough to affect the availability of workers in the industry, the sector should expect big changes," he said.
In late 2024, concern over the potential effect of Trump’s immigration policy on seafood workers and businesses prompted U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to introduce legislation that would allow seafood companies to hire workers through the uncapped H-2A visa program, increasing the number of seasonal workers they could legally hire.
In response to pressure from U.S. senators, the Department of Labor also announced in November 2024 that it would make additional 64 and 716 H-2B visas available for the 2025 fiscal year.