I’ve been pleased to see that my blog posts here have generated a bit of press coverage in favor of an Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) resolution in West Orange. This piece, in the November 20 issue of TapInto West Orange, covered my initial statement to West Orange Town Council. This one, in the December 23 issue of The West Orange Dispatch, essentially brings things up to date.

WEST ORANGE, NJ – A proposal to adopt an Immigrant Trust Act (ITA)-style resolution in West Orange is gaining renewed attention following recent advocacy efforts and heightened concern after federal immigration enforcement activity in the township.

Local resident and activist Irfan Khawaja announced in a November 20 post that West Orange officials are seeking a model Immigrant Trust Resolution to present to the Township Council for consideration. According to Khawaja, Susan McCartney confirmed that the township is actively reviewing language for a potential resolution, which would aim to strengthen trust between immigrant communities and local government by clarifying limits on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, consistent with state law. …

Khawaja has addressed the Council on multiple occasions and has followed up with written correspondence to individual council members and the township’s Human Relations Commission. He continues to call on residents to engage in the process as West Orange evaluates whether to adopt a resolution tailored to the community.

Though I’ve been gratified by most of the public response to my efforts, it’s worth noting that West Orange’s so-called Human Relations Commission has so far failed even to acknowledge my correspondence, much less to respond to it. In any case, one member of the Council has now asked me to draft a resolution for the Council to consider, which I’m in the process of doing. My mother thinks it should be named after me. I think I’ll settle for mere passage.

If you want a sense of the stakes involved, read this piece by Austen Kocher, an academic expert on the subject at Syracuse University (in fact, subscribe to his Substack while you’re at it). What it makes clear is that ICE’s enforcement regime is not about public safety or the rule of law. And the rights violations involved are not somehow incidental errors extraneous to the enterprise itself. Rights violations are the enterprise. Federal immigration enforcement today is, simply put, a paramilitary assault on the American public. The so-called “immigration crisis” its officials invoke is a fig leaf for the wholesale subversion of the rule of law.

I’m not sure what it will take to convince local governments or the public as such of the urgency of the issue. I’m eager to learn. But skeptics can hardly complain about the adamance or loquacity of activists as long as they sincerely profess themselves unconvinced by what we’re saying, and then refuse to respond to any of it. If they’re really unconvinced, we’re really here to convince them. They claim to be against “sanctuary cities.” We’re against them, too: it’s time to end the sanctuaries these people have built up against reality.

For my previous posts on West Orange, go here.