While lawmakers in the nation's capital negotiate a spending bill for the upcoming fiscal year, activists in Bergen and Hudson counties on Friday joined others across the country in demanding that Congress cut funds to federal immigration enforcement agencies.

In Hackensack, more than 60 people assembled at the steps of the Bergen County Courthouse holding signs that read "Stop Using Tax Dollars to Fund Hate," and "Congress, You Have the Authority, Use It."

"Why we are here today is because this month of September is a critical time for Congress,'' said Anna Wong, one of the organizers of the Hackensack event. "They are about to figure out how they want to fund Congress and our government for another year. What that means is they are deciding what to do with our money. And I don't know about you, but I don't want my money funding more of the cruelty and hate that [President Donald] Trump is enforcing against these people."

Advocates who spoke in Hackensack urged attendees to call their representatives and ask them to prohibit the use of money allocated for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to be transferred and pay for costs associated with the detainment and housing of immigrants and their families by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

They also are asking lawmakers to cut funding to ICE and CBP agencies to 2016 levels.

"One of the things that we really want to focus on is preventing further increases in funding where they already are,'' said Kyle Aldrich, of Indivisible, a grassroots organization which hosted the events across the country.

Minutes after the rally began and as speeches were underway, a counter-protester, Brian Cameron, of Lodi, arrived with a bullhorn and began to shout "Build that Wall" and "God Bless Donald J. Trump." Cameron said he wanted to express his point of view and said he's against people coming into the country illegally.

"I'm trying to push back against their voice with my own voice,'' he said. "The left is very intolerant, and you have to push back. There are laws here...and now we are getting this influx of all these people around the country."

But attendees were not deterred and continued to listen to speakers, before turning around and starting their own chant of "Love trumps hate."

The gathering was one of the approximately 200 held nationwide as part of a "Defund Hate" campaign.

Carolina Curbelo, an immigration attorney based out Ridgewood, said she wanted to participate and speak because she wanted to provide an insight into the legal system.

"People don't know how many people are being detained,'' she said. "I'm perplexed that a lot of my fellow Bergen County residents are not aware that we are detaining individuals here and that is where we are funding our coffers, and I don't want to be a part of that. I don't think New Jersey should be a part of it."

There are four facilities in New Jersey that house ICE detainees. They are the Bergen, Hudson, and Essex county jails, which charged the federal government more than $87 million last year to house ICE detainees. There is also a private immigration detention facility in Elizabeth.

Several advocates in these counties are calling for elected officials to phase out of the contracts or terminate them, pointing to California lawmakers who have passed a bill banning private prisons, including some ICE detention centers.

About a dozen advocates also gathered in West New York outside of Congressman Albio Sires' office. Organizers said a staff member at Sires' office told them they should not be protesting outside Democrat lawmaker's offices, but instead be rallying in Kentucky at U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's offices.

"We were very upset as Albio is a Latino and is supposed to be representing our community,'' said Rosa Santana, of First Friends of New Jersey and New York who was one of the lead organizers of that rally. "This was shocking and disappointing."

A call to Sires' West New York office was not immediately returned Friday night.

This week, lawmakers in Washington D.C. returned from summer recess and face a looming deadline to pass a spending bill to fund the government or risk another government shutdown. The process is expected to take some time, with McConnell already endorsing a short-term spending bill that would fund the government past the Sept. 30 deadline, according to Politico.

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