Statement of Sadaf Jaffer in support of a municipal resolution supporting the Immigrant Trust Act, Montgomery (NJ) Town Council, Sept. 4.
Good evening,
As a former mayor and state legislator, I urge you to pass a resolution supporting the Immigrant Trust Act and to do everything in your power to ensure that our state assemblymembers Roy Freiman and Mitchelle Drulis cosponsor it as well. Continue reading
Notes on Migrant Justice
In two posts here, I’ve taken issue with the idea that Princeton’s recent passage of (or even mere discussion of) the ITA Resolution has induced ICE to raid the town and detain people. The basic premise behind this claim is that ICE operations target municipalities that express opposition to ICE. The further implication is that if you want to avoid ICE operations where you live, you have to tone down your public opposition to ICE, and adopt a “quiet” form of dissent. It can’t be stressed enough how dangerously out of touch with reality this claim is. If put into practice, it would mean the end of public opposition to ICE at a time when public opposition is clearly working, and is all we have. Continue reading
Thoughts on Rapid Response
In the last 24 hours or so, there have been three major ICE raids in my vicinity in central New Jersey, meaning in the vicinity of where I live or work: one in Hightstown (yesterday, at Franklin & Westerlea), one in Edison (yesterday, 45 Patrick Ave), and one in Trenton (today, 36 Bayard St). The Hightstown raid led to the detention of one person; the Edison one, now being described as one of the biggest since Trump took office, led to the detention of 29. My initial impression is that the Trenton raid was thwarted, and didn’t lead to any detentions; ICE lacked a judicial warrant in that case, and was refused entry into the premises.* Continue reading
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
More Botched Reporting from Town Topics
In an earlier post here, I took issue with Town Topics’s defective reporting on the ITA municipal resolution campaign in Princeton. In quoting exclusively from members of the Princeton Council in its reporting on the July 28 Council meeting, I argued, the paper functioned essentially as a PR mouthpiece for the Council rather than as an expression of bona fide journalism. I sent a shorter version of that post as a letter to the editor of Town Topics, but it wasn’t printed. The paper’s most recent reporting on the August 11 meeting makes an attempt of sorts to remedy the problem, but still falls woefully short. Continue reading
Statement Urging Passage of a Municipal Resolution in Favor of the Immigrant Trust Act
Princeton Town Council
Princeton Municipal Building
400 Witherspoon St
Princeton, New Jersey
July 28, 2025
My name is Irfan Khawaja, I’m a resident of Princeton, and I support a municipal resolution in favor of the Immigrant Trust Act. I’ll be forwarding written statements to the Council from Flemington Borough Council member Trent Levitt, Bloomfield mayor Jenny Mundell, and former New Jersey state representative Sadaf Jaffer, all urging passage of such a resolution. I’ve asked several other mayors and local officials to weigh in, and my hope is that they will.
Continue reading
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
I’ve previously mentioned my work with Resistencia en Acción, a migrant defense group based in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey. Much of what Resistencia does is to face down ICE whenever the need arises. And to put it bluntly: ICE has to be faced down. It’s less a law enforcement agency than a glorified group of thugs–an American Gestapo–intent on solving, by brute force, problems that they themselves have confabulated. Continue reading
I subscribe to an email list owned by a group called Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS), which just today put out an open letter to Christopher Eisgruber, President of Princeton University, in advance of tomorrow’s speech by Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. I don’t ordinarily feel the need to respond to statements by PFS, but in this case, a brief comment is in order. Continue reading
The New York Times has yet another article on the Trump Administration’s attacks on higher education. As a former academic, I feel bad for higher education, but as an activist right now, I feel fine. Here’s my unapologetic comment in the comments section of the article:
When campus activists called for divestment, we were mocked. Now, as Defense Dept contracts are being canceled at those very universities, invoking our activism as a pretext, it’s our turn to mock. Don’t expect sympathy. It’s not forthcoming. You wanted us in jail. We want you broke. May the antagonist with the greatest moral endurance win.
My comment elicited a rejoinder from someone named Al Orin from New York City: Continue reading
Policy of Truth 