LAKEWOOD, N.J. – Federal immigration agents have stepped up their presence around Lakewood in recent days, with multiple videos posted from different locations showing ICE vehicles, agents and arrests around the township.
The New Jersey Project posted videos Thursday and Saturday showing what the group identified as ICE operations in Lakewood. One clip shows several federal vehicles gathered during an apparent enforcement action; another shows agents taking people into custody.
The activity comes during an already tense period surrounding immigration enforcement in Ocean County.
On Friday, Raul Luna-Perez was sentenced to 20 years in state prison for the drunken Lakewood crash that killed a mother and her 11-year-old daughter.
Two weeks earlier, a 9-month-old boy was killed in neighboring Jackson in a crash prosecutors say involved a woman who had never held a driver’s license. Federal authorities subsequently identified her as being in the country illegally.
ICE has not publicly announced a Lakewood-wide operation or provided a total number of arrests from the activity seen in this week’s videos. The timing alone does not establish that the enforcement activity was launched because of either fatal crash.
ICE Vehicles and Arrests Seen Around Lakewood
The New Jersey Project, a conservative New Jersey activist organization, posted the latest video Saturday with the message, “More ICE in Lakewood, NJ.”
The group had posted another Lakewood video Thursday simply stating, “ICE in Lakewood, NJ.”
The short clips add to a much larger federal presence that Lakewood residents have been seeing for months.
In June, immigration officers descended on El Oaxaqueño supermarket in Lakewood and detained 18 immigrants. Other videos from the township have shown federal officers pursuing and detaining people during separate operations.
Shore News Network also reported last week that ICE activity was already occurring across Ocean County, including cases involving defendants from Lakewood, Jackson and Toms River.
What is not yet clear is how many people ICE arrested in Lakewood this week.
Luna-Perez Sentenced After Killing Lakewood Mother and Daughter
The latest sightings came as the Luna-Perez case returned to the headlines.
On Friday, Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan sentenced the 43-year-old Red Bank man to an aggregate 20 years in state prison for the July 2025 crash that killed Maria Pleitez, 42, and her 11-year-old daughter, Dayanara Cortes.
Luna-Perez had pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated manslaughter and assault by auto.
Investigators found that Luna-Perez was driving about 60 mph on Cross Street when he crossed the double-yellow line, passed four vehicles and slammed head-on into Pleitez’s Nissan Sentra.
His blood-alcohol concentration was at least .19, according to prosecutors. Cocaine metabolites were also found in his blood, and a toxicology report concluded that he was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
Federal authorities identified Luna-Perez as a Mexican national unlawfully present in the United States.
His history before the fatal crash became a significant part of the case.
ICE said Luna-Perez had previously been arrested in Red Bank for a domestic violence incident in 2023 and twice for DWI in 2025. Shore News Network previously reported that one of those DWI arrests came after Luna-Perez nearly struck a marked Red Bank police vehicle head-on.
The fatal crash happened about three months later.
After the Lakewood crash, Luna-Perez was initially sent to the Ocean County Jail before a judge released him to strict home detention. ICE then took him into federal custody on an immigration detainer.
When prosecutors received additional toxicology evidence and upgraded the criminal charges, Ocean County detectives retrieved Luna-Perez from an ICE detention facility in Elizabeth and returned him to county jail.
His immigration status did not cause the crash. His intoxicated and reckless driving did.
But the case became part of the statewide argument over what should happen when someone who is unlawfully in the country repeatedly encounters local law enforcement before committing a more serious crime.
Nine-Month-Old Killed in Jackson Weeks Before Sentencing
The debate intensified again on Aug. 28, this time just across the Lakewood border in Jackson Township.
Maria CobonGuzman, 20, was driving a Ford Fusion through the NPGS grocery store parking lot on West County Line Road when prosecutors say she struck a mother pushing her two children in a baby carriage.
The woman’s 9-month-old son died at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. His 5-year-old sister and mother survived.
According to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, CobonGuzman “did not possess, nor had she ever possessed, a valid driver’s license in this or any other state.”
She is charged with manslaughter, operating a vehicle without ever having possessed a valid license while involved in a fatal crash and two counts of assault by auto.
Ariadna Lazaro-Flores, 22, of Toms River, is accused of knowing CobonGuzman had never held a license but allowing her to drive anyway.
Federal authorities later identified CobonGuzman as a Guatemalan national and Lazaro-Flores as a Mexican national, both unlawfully present in the United States. ICE detainers were lodged against both women.
Shore News Network subsequently reported that federal authorities said both women had previously been told or given opportunities to leave the United States.
Both women remain defendants in a pending criminal case. The charges are accusations, and they are presumed innocent unless convicted.
Lakewood Has Seen ICE Operations Before
The videos posted this week are not Lakewood’s first encounter with large-scale immigration enforcement.
ICE activity has become increasingly visible around the township this year, including the June supermarket operation and street arrests documented on video.
Lakewood also has a sizable immigrant workforce, particularly in construction, landscaping, food service and other trades.
New Jersey has allowed residents who cannot establish lawful immigration status to obtain standard driver’s licenses since 2021. An analysis released this summer by Assemblyman Paul Kanitra estimated that 1,158 such licenses were associated with Lakewood addresses.
Lakewood and Jackson have extensive rental markets, and residential properties throughout both communities are owned by LLCs. LLC owned houses frequently rent to multiple families at a time. In some cases, five to six non-connected families share a single family home, often illegally divided into multiple units.
For residents, however, the federal presence is becoming much harder to miss.
Lakewood saw immigration arrests earlier this summer. This week, the cameras caught ICE there again.