Scenes from Delaney Hall (6)
Here’s a first: I was at Delaney Hall last night for The Peoples’ Vigil, a quasi-religious event held each Monday at 7:30 pm. During the vigil, Shane Claiborne, a self-described Anabaptist and founder of the New Monastic Movement, made admiring reference to the Cato Institute, of all things. “Even the Cato Institute,” he said, “is against this building…” He was alluding to the research of David J. Bier, Cato’s Director of Immigration Studies and Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy, and in particular, to Bier’s paper, “Immigrants Cut Victimization Rates, Boost Crime Reporting” (Policy Analysis 1003, August 2025), which argues that contrary to popular belief, comparatively few immigrants are violent criminals. You’re more likely to be killed by a falling vending machine or hit by lightning than killed by an “illegal immigrant.”
Tag Archives: immigration
Outside Agitation
Scenes from Delaney Hall (3)
In 1963, an outsider named Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama to protest injustice there by deliberately intensifying “tension” in that, to him, foreign city. His presence, as well as that of his followers, was questioned by locals:
However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.
King unapologetically doubled down on being an outsider:
Continue readingNJ Transit: No Warrant? No ICE
Soon after she took office, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill issued an Executive Order (EO-12) requiring that ICE officers have a warrant to enter “nonpublic areas of State property.” On March 19 of this year, however, NJ.com reported that New Jersey Transit “buses, trains and stations” remain open to ICE officers without the need for a warrant–on the grounds that buses, trains, and stations are public areas of State property, hence not covered by EO-12. Continue reading
Little Municipality Can’t Be Wrong
Other people’s thoughts, they ain’t your hand-me-downs
Would it be so bad to simply turn around?
–The Spin Doctors, “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”
Here’s the latest installment in my ongoing struggle to restore facticity to political discourse in Princeton. My last go-round with Princeton’s Town Topics concerned its misdescription, graciously conceded by the editor, of the municipality’s acquisition of Westminster Choir College. This one concerns the paper’s insistence on repeating the municipality’s PR to the effect that “the Princeton Police Department does not participate in federal immigration enforcement.” Yes, it does. Repeating this “does not participate” mantra doesn’t make it true, but that doesn’t stop either the municipality or its amen-corner at Town Topics from repeating it ad nauseam. Continue reading
The Immigrant Trust Tour: Lawrence Township
Last night was Clifton; tonight was Lawrence Township. The statement I gave in Lawrence was essentially the same as the one I gave in Clifton, so I won’t reproduce it. Just a few thoughts and some pictures tonight.
I was gratified at how receptive Lawrence Township was to us. They not only put us on the agenda, but gave us a dedicated spot at the beginning. About a dozen people spoke in defense of the ITA, for about an hour. Lots of activists from Resistencia; one activist from Latino Action Network; and one woman from the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party of Monmouth County, a MAGA stronghold more than an hour away. Continue reading
The Immigrant Trust Tour: Clifton
I spoke tonight at Clifton City Council in Passaic County, north Jersey. Thanks to Jeff Hoey for the invitation to speak, and to both Jeff and the folks at the Palestinian-American Community Center of Clifton for the camaraderie. There was a rather different atmosphere in Clifton than, say, Princeton, West Windsor, or Cranbury–a circus atmosphere, at times. “Viewpoint diversity,” I think the savants call it.
A couple of members of the public expressed the widely-held view that while their ancestors came here legally, they have no sympathy for those who’ve come illegally. “Illegals,” on this view, deserve whatever anyone, including ICE, dishes out to them, including indefinite detention, deportation, impoverishment, expropriation, family dissolution, and premature death. Continue reading
The Trenton Campaign: No Collaboration with ICE
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 Immigrant Trust Tour: West Windsor
I spoke before the West Windsor Town Council this evening, defending the idea of a pro-ITA municipal resolution there modeled on the one we have in Princeton. I was very pleased to learn that Councilman Dan Weiss had already written in favor of the Immigrant Trust Act; he expressed enthusiastic support for a municipal resolution at the meeting as well. My hope is to re-visit the issue with the council after the election with some West Windsorites in tow. Here’s the text of the statement I gave. Continue reading
The Immigrant Trust Tour: 9-0 Win in Union County
Well readers, we did it. The Union County Board of County Commissioners voted 9-0 tonight to adopt Resolution 2025-796:
Supporting the Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center’s efforts, and encouraging the New Jersey Legislature to pass Senate Bill 3672 and Assembly Bill A4987, which establishes protections for immigrants interacting with government agencies, and designates the “New Jersey Immigrant Trust Act.”
The resolution was co-sponsored by Commissioner Sergio Granados and Chairwoman Lourdes M. Leon, and supported by the entire Board. The Board passed the resolution, offered words of support for migrant rights generally, praised our efforts, and promised to transmit the text of the resolution to the other twenty county governments in New Jersey–two of whom, Essex and Hudson, have already adopted resolutions. Union County makes three, with eighteen more to go.
Continue readingThe Trenton Campaign: No Collaboration with ICE
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
Policy of Truth 