I spoke tonight at Clifton City Council in Passaic County, north Jersey. Thanks to Jeff Hoey for the invitation to speak, and to both Jeff and the folks at the Palestinian-American Community Center of Clifton for the camaraderie. There was a rather different atmosphere in Clifton than, say, Princeton, West Windsor, or Cranbury–a circus atmosphere, at times. “Viewpoint diversity,” I think the savants call it.

A couple of members of the public expressed the widely-held view that while their ancestors came here legally, they have no sympathy for those who’ve come illegally. “Illegals,” on this view, deserve whatever anyone, including ICE, dishes out to them, including indefinite detention, deportation, impoverishment, expropriation, family dissolution, and premature death.

Anyone who really believes that should try the following idea on for size: why not have federal agents from the DEA raid the Narcotics Anonymous groups at Allwood Community Church and United Reformed Methodist Church, both in Clifton? Why not have federal law enforcement start ambushing people at NA meetings all around the country? Or pose as drug counselors, inducing people to make compromising confessions to them, then arrest them, breaking up their families and sending them to concentration camps?

Like all NA groups, the ones in Clifton serve explicitly as “sanctuaries” for law-breakers–“sanctuary” is NA’s own word–most of them US citizens. If it’s OK to have ICE destroy the lives of “illegal immigrants,” it should be OK to have the DEA destroy the lives of “illegal drug addicts.”

Clifton City Council

That includes all of the opioid addicts who constitute one of the rationalizations for the war on migrants in the first place. Migrants, we’re told, are bringing drugs into the country; that’s why they’re so hateful and dangerous, and have to be expelled. The people making these arguments seem to forget that the people taking the drugs are themselves “illegals” of a different sort. Why the animosity for the one set of illegals and unaccountable empathy for the other? Instead of going to war against Venezuela, Colombia, or Mexico, we could just attack our “national drug problem” at its source by attacking the people, largely American, who are the source of it. 

To treat immigrants and drug abusers differently is special pleading. To treat them with equal brutality is fascism. The obvious alternative is to grant them both equal freedom, equal justice, and equal benevolence. Somehow, that option seems perpetually off the table. 

I kept my comments brief this time.

Hi, my name is Irfan Khawaja. My primary residence is in Princeton, but I split my time between Princeton and West Orange. I’m here to say a few words in defense of Clifton’s passing a municipal resolution in defense of the Immigrant Trust Act.

The ITA is a codification and extension of the Immigrant Trust Directive that’s governed law enforcement agencies in the state since 2018. The ITA would give the ITD the force of law, and extend some of its provisions to make them stronger. 

Clifton resident speaks; Councilwoman Mary Sadrakula listens

The ITA has been stalled in the legislature for more than a year now. So the point of our request is to have you pass a resolution in favor of the ITA that persuades the legislature to take action by giving them some indication of the popular will on this issue. Passage of a resolution would not create any new legal obligations for Clifton.

There’s a powerful need for legislation like the ITA. It’s always been a contested issue how federal immigration enforcement relates to local law enforcement. I used to teach criminal justice at Felician University alongside John Link, Clifton’s former Chief of Police, so I know that there are lots of hairs to split. But two things are incontestable. 

One is that the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution demands a distinction between federal and local powers. 

Clifton resident Jeff Hoey speaks; Councilman Antonio Latona listens

The second is that the distinction is currently being eroded. The quickest way to prove this to yourself is to go back and read the middle section of the Declaration of Independence, the bill of particulars against the British Crown. I think you’ll find to your shock that literally every complaint listed there is one we can make against DHS today. Whatever your views on immigration, it’s time to set some bounds, which is what the ITA does. 

So I hope you’ll join what is quickly becoming a statewide movement and pass a municipal resolution. Twenty municipalities and three counties have signed on, and our hope is that Clifton will, as well.