{"id":150078,"date":"2026-03-02T20:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/150078\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T20:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:51:18","slug":"conflict-breaks-out-between-jersey-city-boe-president-and-activist-at-ice-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/150078\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflict breaks out between Jersey City BOE president and activist at ICE protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

A verbal confrontation broke out between an activist and the Jersey City Board of Education (BOE) president yesterday at the end of a youth-led demonstration<\/a> in Jersey City against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Dan Israel\/Hudson County View<\/p>\n

The moment began when BOE President Noemi Velazquez and Vice President Dejon Morris exited the rally that culminated in front of City Hall.<\/p>\n

At that moment, Climate Revolution NJ Executive Director Ben Dziobek called them out for what he saw as hindering students standing against ICE, referring to the BOE banning 8th District congressional candidate Mussab Ali from school property, as HCV first reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s elections this year for the board of education. I think it\u2019s time that we replace some people. And as ambivalent as they may be in this audience because they showed up, showing up isn\u2019t it,\u201d Dziobek exclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see real action. We don\u2019t want to be lied to. We don\u2019t want young people to have their voices squashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Dziobek, this protest was incepted by the Jersey City High School and College Democrats after an attempted walkout against ICE was thwarted when classes were put into lockdown at McNair Academic High School.<\/p>\n

He encouraged those in attendance at the March 1st rally to vote out incumbent BOE trustees in the next election cycle due to their \u201cobstruction through restrictions of students\u2019 freedom of speech\u201d and punitive measures including missing prom.<\/p>\n

While he spoke, Velazquez returned to the front of the crowd to listen. After he finished, she approached him and stated \u201cICE will come for me before they come for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This prompted Dziobek to return to the microphone the denounce her \u201creprehensible\u201d comments on his skin color in front of youth organizers given his Cuban background.<\/p>\n

Velazquez began by stating she has been organizing protests since the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to which Dziobek told reporters that doesn\u2019t take away from him and others speaking out.<\/p>\n

Responding to her other comment about ICE, Dziobek said this has nothing to do with race, but rather the removal of civil liberties.<\/p>\n

While Dziobek stated it was a \u201creally horrible to be saying that, especially during an election year,\u201d Velazquez recently secured her re-election in 2025 earning the most votes of any candidate citywide in the November municipal election.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that he feels the BOE stopped students from walking out of McNair against ICE and thereby limited their free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were all things directed by the board of education president and vice president for the school system to do. If they don\u2019t want to accept that they did that, fine,\u201d Dziobek expressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut coming up here and yelling, like literally yelling, and with high school students standing right there \u2026 You\u2019re supposed to be role models for our students. That wasn\u2019t a role model. That is someone who is angry and is maybe clinging to some form of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jersey City High School and College Democrats Chair Janhitha Veeramachaneni, also the main organizer of the rally, told HCV that she reached out to every member of the BOE prior to the event, along with some former trustees as well.<\/p>\n

She said she received general support as well as confirmation from Velazquez, Morris, and Trustee Natalia Ioffe that they would be in attendance.<\/p>\n

According to Veeramachaneni, if they wanted to come up and speak, she would have afforded them the opportunity.<\/p>\n

And while Morris had raised questions regarding the number of elected officials speaking at the event earlier that morning, she said that those who spoke were approved via a vote among the organizers and Ali was picked because he is an advocate for young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo even if they came up and said, \u2018Hey, can I speak?\u2019 Of course, speak on behalf of the board of education, and share your personal point of view. But I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a reason why there should be a verbal altercation taking place in front of people,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish our community and our board of education would work better together to encourage young people to actually want to go to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali told HCV in an interview after the rally that it was insulting to the students to assume that they can\u2019t mobilize to protest something they feel strongly against, calling out the BOE for blaming him for the prior ICE protest<\/a> by the four Jersey City high schools last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re infantilizing our young people. They think that they aren\u2019t able to form their own opinions. They have this concept in their minds that young people need to be protected, but I think they have the wrong concepts of who they need to be protected from,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t need to be protected from forming their own ideas. They need to be protected from ICE agents coming into their streets and tearing away children from classrooms and tearing apart families.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Velazquez, she was supportive of the kids the whole time and their stance against ICE until Ali spoke.<\/p>\n

She said the code of conduct penalizing students for walking out was already on the books, and something he too signed as board president.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday I was proud of them because they organized well. The kids, their own experiences, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about. Until we start talking about Ali, then we lose the focus of what the issue is. The issue is not Ali. Ali is just somebody that wants to be somebody, and he\u2019ll use anybody to get anywhere,\u201d she said over the phone.<\/p>\n

Velazquez said that Veeramachaneni was one of her students and invited her to be there, which she said she gladly accepted given her history as an activist.<\/p>\n

She added that a sit-in wouldn\u2019t have yielded this response from the BOE, but she said Ali told her if they didn\u2019t, leave the school the demonstration wouldn\u2019t have any impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a protest. There, we were not hurting anybody. We were expressing what we felt, and we were not creating any kind of rumpus or trouble,\u201d the school board president added.<\/p>\n

Velazquez said that she respects what the students are doing, but they have to follow bylaws and the code of conduct, which parents have to sign each year.<\/p>\n

She said that\u2019s why she preferred students protest after school at 3 p.m., but was told no by Ali during their many conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said no, it\u2019s not going to have the same effect, I told him then he\u2019s going to get the kids in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ali and the organizers of the walkouts dispute his involvement beyond offering advice, Velazquez says his name was on associated flyers and students were told to call him for assistance.<\/p>\n

She called Dziobek\u2019s comments at the rally unprofessional and orchestrated by Ali.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stole the thunder from the kids: Other people that were back there told me it was Ali that sent him to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Velazquez, she said more to Dziobek than what he had communicated to everyone, adding she was unaware he was Cuban. She emphasized she was there to support the students, but was unaware of the prevented walkout at McNair.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could not say everything else I told him about my experiences, my job, and my work in the community, none of that. What was only important was him making a point. If it was me and him somewhere, they would come for me before they would come for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A verbal confrontation broke out between an activist and the Jersey City Board of Education (BOE) president yesterday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[62822,62823,62824,60228,57034,9,11,10,62825],"class_list":["post-150078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-ben-dziobek","tag-climate-revolution-nj","tag-dejon-morris","tag-jersey-city-board-of-education","tag-mussab-ali","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-noemi-velazquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}