The Princeton-area League of Women Voters recently held a candidates’ forum for the four Democratic candidates for Municipal Council. They’d asked voters for questions to ask the candidates, and as it happens, my question was the first one asked (starts at minute 3 of the video):

Would you be amenable to passing an “ICE-Free Princeton” ordinance banning the use of municipality-owned property by federal immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant? 

Well reader, all four said “yes,” at least pending legal review. So the idea has advocates in both of the places where I’ve advocated it, West Orange and now Princeton. Now all we have to do is write up some legislation and pass it. Something to put on the to-do list for the second half of the year.

The “ICE Free” idea, for the uninitiated:

A growing number of jurisdictions are responding to out-of-control immigration enforcement by adopting ICE-free zone policies. These are land-use and administrative policies that limit federal agencies from using city- or county-owned property as staging areas, processing sites for arrests, or operational bases for civil immigration enforcement. By doing so, localities can disrupt the infrastructure for large-scale raids, reassert local control over public property, protect residents from enforcement activity, and reinforce trust between immigrant communities and local government.

My hope is that the number of jurisdictions keeps growing. More than a hope, really. Last year, we got 30 municipal and seven county-level Immigrant Trust resolutions passed. Those resolutions and that effort, widely derided as pointless, provided the impetus for the Immigrant Protections Package that passed the New Jersey State Legislature in January of this year, as well as Union County’s promise not to sell its jail to ICE. Anti-ICE struggles continue all across the state, most notably in Roxbury and Roseland, and of course, at Delaney Hall. Maybe we’ll win some of those, and get ICE Free legislation passed across the state as well.

Call it a bunch of “victories amidst a backdrop of misery,” if it happens. But for now, call it proof of concept. If I can persuade people to do something, anyone can.