There is outrage in the Bronx following the arrest of a beloved immigrant in the community by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n
Aleksander Nilaj, founder of the Open Hand food bank in the Bronx, was detained last Monday while attending an immigration court hearing. He was taken to the Delaney Hall Detention Center in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Community members reacted to his sudden arrest.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cSince he\u2019s been here, he\u2019s been a blessing to the community,” Bronx resident Alex told News 4. “So I don\u2019t feel he should go back for something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nilaj began this work about 20 years ago after immigrating to New York from Albania.<\/p>\n
Congressman Ritchie Torres confirmed to News 4 that he has been fighting for his release.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an injustice against his family and the community that loves him,\u201d Torres added. \u201cThe federal government should focus on the most violent and dangerous criminals, not on public servants like Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told us in a statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cOn October 13, 2026, ICE detained Aleksander Nilaj, an undocumented immigrant from Albania. He legally entered the United States temporarily on October 1, 2006, and after his authorized stay expired, he remained in the country illegally, violating our laws. He received due process, and on July 22, 2008, an immigration judge ordered his removal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The food bank, located on Lydig Avenue, will not distribute food until Nilaj is released.<\/p>\n
Several members of the community, especially the elderly, have relied on the meals provided by Open Hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many elderly people here who need the food that comes with the fruit and vegetables,\u201d said a local resident. \u201cThere are many people here who are in great need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congressman Torres told News 4 that Nilaj has no criminal record or charges against him and that his lawyer would demand his release by filing an appeal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is outrage in the Bronx following the arrest of a beloved immigrant in the community by U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,2301,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-377635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-immigration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377635","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=377635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}