Detained, departed & defiant

Good morning!

Nearly one year ago, Lourdes Rosero was one of dozens of immigrants arrested as part of a raid at a warehouse in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.

Rosero’s next months were spent at the Elizabeth Detention Center and then at a migrant jail in Louisiana before she managed to win temporary freedom and now awaits potential deportation back in her Elizabeth home.

“That tranquility, the feeling of being able to go anywhere, knowing you’re not doing anything wrong, of feeling truly free, it’s totally gone,” she told Sophie Nieto-Muñoz.

Sophie recounts Rosero’s story today in the first of a three-story series examining ICE’s role in New Jersey under the second Trump administration. Take some time to read it today.

ICYMI: From Sunday, I wrote about the Sherrill administration’s investigation into Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell and the governor’s continued silence on it. Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s hesitance to speak may have made sense if this were any other state employee, but Caldwell is her No. 2, acts as governor when she’s away, and, as secretary of state, oversees our elections (there are just 56 days until Election Day). Sherrill should address the allegations publicly.

9/11: Tim Lambert, editor-in-chief over at sibling site Pennsylvania Capital-Star, talks about the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, in a rural part of the state where Lambert happened to own a piece of land. While reporters across the nation and around the world were covering the tragic event, he was the only journalist who had access to the Flight 93 crash site. “I was well aware that history was at the door, and I wanted to do things the right way,” he said. Shalina Chatlani spoke to Lambert about his experiences 25 years ago.

More: New documents released by New York City reveal New Yorkers were repeatedly assured 25 years ago that the air quality around the fallen Twin Towers was safe to breathe, even though months after the attack officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as half a mile away, per the New York Times. New Jersey’s own Christie Todd Whitman was the nation’s Environmental Protection Agency secretary at the time of the attacks and was one of the officials telling New Yorkers that the air was safe to breathe again days after the attack. Thousands more documents are expected to be released in coming weeks.