Tag Archives: ice

The Trenton Campaign: No Collaboration with ICE

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Statement of Farahnaz Shemeem to Trenton City Council
319 E. State St.
Trenton, New Jersey
October 21, 2025

Hello, good evening, Council; my name is Farahnaz, [Trenton address]. I’m a Rapid Responder with Resistencia en Acción, an organization that supports families impacted by ICE operations. I’m here today to share what I’ve personally witnessed and to call your attention to what is happening in our city.

As someone who has grown up in Trenton, it is deeply painful to see the Trenton Police assisting ICE agents–agents who are breaking our laws, violating their own policies, and lying to families to get them out of their homes and cars. Instead of protecting the community, our officers are enabling ICE to terrorize our neighborhoods and enter spaces where they have no legal authority to be. The Trenton Police has been assisting ICE agents in creating intimidation which prevents people from exercising their constitutional rights, the right to remain in their private spaces, to record ICE, and to inform others of their rights. Continue reading →

The Trenton Campaign: No Collaboration with ICE

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Statement of Hilary Persky to Trenton City Council
319 E. State St.
Trenton, New Jersey
October 21, 2025

Like so many here, I have watched the Trenton Police, during an ICE raid in August, establish a perimeter around ICE agents. We’re told this was to maintain public safety, because ICE had a battering ram, but no warrant, ready to break in–with no warrant. And a police perimeter. Continue reading →

Resistance in Action (5)

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, migrant defense

A Response to John Heilner

Toward the end of the August 11 Princeton Council meeting at which Princeton’s ITA Resolution was adopted, John Heilner, a Princeton resident, offered a comment that has now been transcribed in the August 13 issue of TapInto Princeton and in the August 13 issue of Town Topics (updated on August 18). Though Mr Heilner’s comment has not to my knowledge elicited very much public comment, I think it demands comment. To put the matter bluntly, I regard his comment as both incoherent and irresponsible, and am amazed that a Council that has spent the better part of the last six months lecturing us about matters of facticity and tone has received it with such apparent equanimity. Continue reading →

Resistance in Action (3)

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, migrant defense

Second Statement to the Princeton Council on the ITA Resolution

This is my second statement to the Princeton Municipal Council on the issue of the ITA Resolution (August 11). For my first one (July 28), go here. For recent news coverage of the adoption of the resolution, go here and here. I’m in the middle of writing up a more comprehensive account of the press coverage of the campaign for the Princeton ITA resolution, and will post it when I can. 

Hi, my name is Irfan Khawaja. I live in Princeton.

I wanted to thank you for the wording of this resolution. I’ve read them all, and the resolution you’ve adopted is probably the best of the bunch.   Continue reading →

Second Statement to the Union County Board

Posted on by under activism

Second Statement to the Union County Board of Commissioners
Administration Building
Elizabethtown Plaza
Elizabeth, New Jersey
July 24, 2025

The last time I was here, I said that the Board had handed the jail off to ICE. That may have sounded misleading or uninformed. Resolutions 290 and 291 aren’t an unrestricted auction to the highest bidder, you might say. They’re a solicitation of interest in a sale relative to a set of constraints. The constraints restrict the potential bidders so as to exclude immigration detention. What more could you ask? Continue reading →

Fundraiser for Detained Activist

Posted on by under activism, General announcements

(I’m happy to report that in less than a week, we’ve collected more than $10K, exceeding our initial goal.)

A migrant defense group I work with, Resistencia en Acción, is organizing a fundraiser via GoFundMe for one of our members who’s been detained by ICE.

We write to you with heavy hearts and a deep sense of urgency.

One of the worker leaders of the Day Laborer Committee in Princeton at Resistencia en Accion NJ has been detained by ICE and is currently being transferred to an immigration detention center here in New Jersey. He has been organizing alongside fellow day laborers at his corner and leading with courage, and showing up for our community in every moment of need.

Please consider making a donation. There’s more information at the GoFundMe link above. Continue reading →

A Challenge to the Union County Board

Posted on by under activism, General announcements, Neutrality and Complicity

Statement to the Union County Board of Commissioners
Administration Building
Elizabethtown Plaza
Elizabeth, New Jersey
June 12, 2025

(Temporarily pushed down; will bring it back to the top when I can.)

My name is Irfan Khawaja. I live in Princeton, and work in Iselin. 

The Board has voted to auction the Union County Jail to the highest bidder. We all know that the highest bidder is likely to be ICE. So let’s get real: you’ve auctioned it off to ICE. Continue reading →

The Lesson of LA

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, cancel culture, Fatwas, Trump 2

A typical discussion of what’s happening right now in LA:

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Trump administration is spoiling for a fight on America’s streets. On Saturday, after a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests degenerated into violence, the administration reacted as if the country were on the brink of war.

The violence was unacceptable. Civil disobedience is honorable; violence is beyond the pale.

You want to know what’s “unacceptable”? It’s bullshit writing of this sort. Continue reading →

May Day in Princeton

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, General announcements, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Trump 2

One of the activist groups I work with, Resistencia en Acción, is putting on a May Day march and celebration this Thursday, May 1st, in Princeton, New Jersey, starting at 6 pm. The event begins at the “Fountain of Freedom” at Washington Rd and Prospect St on the Princeton University campus. We’ll march through town, circle back, and hear from local activists and members of the community in both English and Spanish. This is a march in solidarity with and defense of all migrants, documented or not, “legal” or not, and against the arbitrary harassment, detentions, and deportations engaged in by the “Department of Homeland Security,” among others. We’re expecting some 800 participants, from Newark to Trenton and points in between. Join us if you want to stand up for justice, and have a good time doing it. And click the Instagram below to listen to Princeton’s own Chris Hedges while you’re at it: Continue reading →

Not Born in the USA

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I did the last of my immigration-enforcement events yesterday at Felician–this one really a mini-event, intended for my seminar-sized criminal justice class. The guest speaker this time was my former Felician student Maria Lopez-Delgado.

Quick intro: Maria graduated as a philosophy major from Felician in 2013 (thesis topic: “The Marxian Critique of Capitalism”; advisor: Khawaja), went on to law school at UNC School of Law, did a stint at the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, and for the past year or so has been back in North Carolina with North Carolina Legal Aid’s Battered Immigrant Project, where she works with victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.* Since she was in North Carolina and we were in Jersey, we spoke by Google Video Chat.  Continue reading →