Six people were charged after an anti-ICE demonstration outside Atlantic City police headquarters Saturday escalated into confrontations among protesters, a counter-protester and police, authorities said.
The Sept. 12 demonstration was organized by El Pueblo Unido of Atlantic City, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization that has been documenting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the resort city and has accused local police of assisting federal immigration agents.
Atlantic City police deny that allegation.
The demonstration began about 11 a.m. in the 2700 block of Atlantic Avenue outside the Clayton G. Graham Public Safety Building and was initially peaceful, according to police. Video of much of the protest was livestreamed on El Pueblo Unido’s Facebook page.
Cristian Moreno-Rodriguez, 31, of Atlantic City, executive director of El Pueblo Unido, was among those arrested after police emerged from the building following an altercation in the crowd.
Police said officers encountered protesters in the street and another person in an area that had been kept clear to provide access to the Public Safety Building. Officers directed people to leave the street and designated access area, but some refused, according to the department.
The demonstration began around 11 a.m. in the 2700 block of Atlantic Avenue and was peaceful until an altercation later broke out, caused by an agitator in the crowd, and suddenly officers emerged from the city’s Public Safety Building to respond forecelfully.
Moreno-Rodriguez and Anthony Diaz, 30, of Newark, were charged with obstruction of justice. Keli Smith, 41, of Egg Harbor Township, was charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.
Three others were charged in connection with the altercation that police said prompted officers to come outside.
Diana Chaparro, 50, of Hammonton, and Devon Barber, 28, of Atlantic City, were charged with simple assault. Jose Salazar, 18, of Princeton, was charged with simple assault and illegal possession of a chemical device involving pepper spray.
One person suffered minor injuries during the initial altercation and was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center for treatment, police said.
The charges are accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.
Organizers offered a sharply different account of the confrontation, saying a counter-protester repeatedly disrupted the demonstration and provoked members of the crowd before police moved against protesters.
“We were attacked by an agitator, and this agitator provoked the whole crowd, and yet we were the ones given consequences,” said Ana Paola Pazmino, executive director of Resistencia en Acción NJ.
Moreno-Rodriguez said Monday that Saturday’s arrests would not deter the organization.
“Saturday did not silence us. Saturday did not break us. Saturday did not erase what our cameras have documented,” Moreno-Rodriguez said. “While I was charged with obstruction, our community believes it is the leadership of the Atlantic City Police Department that has repeatedly stood in the way of justice.”
Cellphone video from the demonstration showed police taking Moreno-Rodriguez into custody outside the Public Safety Building as demonstrators protested the officers’ actions.
El Pueblo Unido said it has documented ICE activity in Atlantic City since December 2025 and believes it has gathered evidence of cooperation between federal immigration agents and Atlantic City police.
“Our community has every right to demand answers,” Moreno-Rodriguez said. “Instead, protestors left this building in handcuffs.”
The police department has disputed the organization’s accusations.
The conflict between the organization and police intensified in the days before Saturday’s protest after Moreno-Rodriguez was stopped by an Atlantic City officer while following vehicles he believed were being used by ICE agents.
El Pueblo Unido alleged that the officer stopped Moreno-Rodriguez to prevent him from documenting federal immigration activity. Police Chief James Sarkos rejected that accusation and said the officer observed Moreno-Rodriguez committing dangerous traffic violations. Police released surveillance footage they said supported their account.
The department has maintained that its officers comply with New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, which limits circumstances in which state and local law enforcement agencies may assist federal civil immigration enforcement.
The dispute has nevertheless raised broader questions among immigrant advocates about the relationship between local police and federal immigration authorities at a time when the Trump administration has intensified immigration enforcement across the country.
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. sought Monday to distance city government and its police department from federal immigration operations while defending local officers.
“We are not against the Hispanic community,” Small said in a statement. “Atlantic City is a diverse, welcoming and multicultural city, and we value the many contributions the Hispanic community has made to our city and our community.”
Small said neither his office nor Atlantic City police have authority over federal immigration enforcement.
“While we may not agree with the tactics being used, there is nothing within our legal authority that allows us to intervene in federal operations,” Small said. “Federal authorities do not notify the City or the Atlantic City Police Department when they plan to conduct operations in Atlantic City.”
Small said the city’s responsibility is to protect residents regardless of their background or nationality.
“We have the absolute best police department in the world,” Small said. “Although we must recognize federal law supersedes state and municipal authority in this instance, the fine men and women of the Atlantic City Police Department will continue to do what they have always done, which is protect and serve our great city with dignity and grace.”
The mayor’s statement did not resolve the central dispute between police and immigrant-rights organizers: whether Atlantic City officers have, intentionally or otherwise, aided federal immigration enforcement.
El Pueblo Unido maintains that its videos and other documentation warrant further scrutiny of the relationship. Police maintain that accusations of cooperation with ICE are misleading and that officers were carrying out ordinary public safety duties.
Moreno-Rodriguez and other organizers are demanding that all charges stemming from Saturday’s demonstration be dismissed.
The arrests have also transformed what began as a protest over federal immigration enforcement into a local dispute over policing, protest rights and accountability.
For El Pueblo Unido, the issue remains larger than the six people charged Saturday.
The organization says it intends to continue documenting immigration enforcement in Atlantic City and challenging what it views as improper cooperation between local authorities and ICE.
For police, the issue is whether demonstrators obeyed lawful orders and whether people involved in the confrontation committed offenses — questions that will ultimately be decided through the court system.
For a city whose population is substantially Latino and immigrant, the confrontation has left another question hanging over Atlantic City: whether residents who fear federal immigration enforcement can trust their local police department to remain separate from it.
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