All three bills of the Immigrant Protection Package (previously the Immigrant Trust Act) have passed both houses of the New Jersey State Legislature, and now await the signature of the governor, which it’s presumed he’ll give (here’s Politico, New Jersey Monitor). In addition, adoption of the so-called IHRA definition of anti-Semitism has been thwarted, meaning that the bill to codify the definition did not advance to a vote.
Ana Paula Pazmiño, Executive Director of Resistencia en Acción, and Assemblywoman Ellen Park, sponsor of the legislation (D-37)
Both sets of victories were the result of years of sustained activist efforts. If not for the energy and initiative of the activist community, neither victory had a chance of happening. After a year of sustained effort in my case (focused more on the ITA than IHRA, but sympathetic to the anti-IHRA cause), no one will ever convince me that activism is foredoomed to failure, has uniformly destructive consequences, consists of mindless emotionalism, or pays no intellectual dividends. None of that is true.
The indefatigable Asma Elhuni, Rapid Response Team, Resistencia
Props to all of the activists involved, but particularly to the ones at Resistencia en Acción, in my neck of the woods, whose work brought the Immigrant Protection Package into existence, and to the activists associated with Sadaf Jaffer, who worked on defeating the IHRA. For once, we have something to celebrate: a 4-0 victory.
Sadaf’s team: Sadaf second from left in yellow scarf; Asma in front with clenched fist
Policy of Truth 
That’s great news!
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Thanks, it is. Already, though, I’m seeing revisionist efforts in the mainstream press to exaggerate the role of the Democrats and minimize the role of grassroots activists.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/nyregion/immigration-policy-new-jersey.html?searchResultPosition=5
This reads as though the effort was a Democratic initiative and activists merely rode their coattails. That’s an inversion of the truth. There is no mention here of the fact that the Immigrant Trust Act was first introduced in the legislature back in September 2024; that it was none other than Craig Coughlin who kept it stalled there for fifteen or sixteen months; that the activist “push” began well before (not after) the gubernatorial election, back in December 2024 (the election was decided in November 2025); that it was grassroots activists who kept the ITA campaign alive through sustained agitation at the local level; and that we faced enormous hostility from Democrats throughout the campaign. I quoted Senate President Nicholas Scutari the other day saying that while he grudgingly supports the legislation, he thinks that we may all live to regret it. This is the caliber of the Democratic leadership, on the eve of a victory. They’re talking about their regrets before they’ve passed the goddamn thing.
There is no mention of the size or diversity of the activist effort involved. Only one activist is quoted; otherwise, politicians dominate the article. Tracey Tully supposedly “covers” New Jersey for The New York Times, but I didn’t see her at a single activist event anywhere. I wonder how many she ever attended, or how many activists she’s talked to or knows. Her reporting follows the tired old school formula, “Politicians did this, and politicians did that. Politicians said this, and politicians said that.” The unspoken axiom is: human progress is driven by what Democratic politicians do. The Times had a good article on Resistencia back in March, but it wasn’t Tully’s. When I read reporting like Tully’s, part of me wants to go MAGA, and part wants to become an anarchist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/business/economy/immigrant-workers-deportation-fears.html?searchResultPosition=1
The Times is just propaganda for the wisdom du jour of the Democratic Party leadership, and most of their reporting functions to conceal the problems for that propaganda. The truth is that the Democrats have never been of one mind on immigration. The Republicans overtly hate immigrants, but the Democrats are torn between wanting to hold power by placating the unions, and wanting to do so by appealing to an ethnic bloc that sympathizes with undocumented immigrants. The largest and most powerful unions do not sympathize with undocumented immigrants. They see undocumented workers as a threat to their livelihood.
These unions are now going to be on the receiving end of enormous state largesse. Though Mamdani is described as a “socialist,” it’s actually Sherrill who is socializing New Jersey’s economy. The extent of that socialization is often left unsaid, but it is huge and transformative. The result, I think, is going to be a pro-union, anti-identity politics platform that crowds out migrant labor, particularly in the construction sector, and leads to covert self-deportation. That’s an uncomfortable reality that no one wants to face, but I’m working on a post that spells it out.
Sorry, I’m gigantically belaboring a “thank you.” I think I’m congenitally incapable of celebrating anything. Even success spells doom. I should just go to sleep.
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