Statement to Princeton Municipal Council
400 Witherspoon St
September 28, 2026, 7 pm
As I know you’re aware, over the summer I made the case to the Mayor and Council for an ICE-Free Zone for Princeton, meaning a resolution or ordinance restricting the use of township property by federal immigration authorities. I appreciate the receptivity of the Mayor and Council to that proposal, and the work they’ve already put into it. But I wanted to highlight the urgency of the issue.
To that end, I would urge everyone to read a piece published in The New York Times this past Friday, “A Quiet ICE Surge that Unfolded ‘Everywhere at Once’ This Summer.” According to the article, DHS “quietly” arrested 143,000 people between June and August of this year, mostly without large scale protest. At this point DHS makes no pretense that the people it’s targeting are criminal suspects: “Those arrested were accused of violating civil immigration laws, but most had not been charged with or convicted of a crime.” In short, what the article describes is essentially a legalized campaign of terror that’s headed our way.
I understand that there are concerns about the details of any forthcoming ordinance or resolution, for instance, what happens if DHS shows up, demands the use of municipal property, and has to be stopped by municipal law enforcement.* But I think the point has to be emphasized and made explicit: it is now established law that we have the right to regulate DHS’s use of our resources. That’s what it means for the resources to be ours. It has to be made clear to DHS that Princeton is not a chess piece on their chessboard. We can’t be used at will.
Thirteen municipalities in NJ, several counties, and the state government itself now have some equivalent of ICE-Free laws on the books, most recently West Orange, whose mayor issued one by Executive Order above the objections of her Council. So it can be done. My hope is that we can get it done here as soon as possible, and use the example of Princeton for the as-yet uncommitted towns of Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset counties and beyond. What we want is an ICE-Free New Jersey. We won’t stop until we get it.
*Two recent cases from Bloomfield are instructive: one led to municipal authorities stopping an ICE operation near Town Hall in downtown Bloomfield, the other to a shelter-in-place order for children at Berkeley Elementary School near the site of a 9 am weekday detention, which gave students there sanctuary against detention. In both cases, Bloomfield’s ICE-Free resolution had substantive policy consequences; in neither case can it reasonably be said that the resolution was merely symbolic.
