Sanctuary in New Jersey

I have a piece up today at NJ Spotlight on the Trump Sanctuary City order — municipalities like Newark and Jersey City are not backing down.

Executive orders by President Donald Trump late last week that mandated deporting undocumented immigrants, building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and suspending entry to the country by refugees prompted protests around the United States, including in New Jersey — and spurred what is sure to be the first of many lawsuits.

Meanwhile, officials of New Jersey’s “sanctuary cities” say they will not capitulate to the president’s threat to use the power of the purse to punish them for providing safe havens to undocumented immigrants. One of Trump’s executive orders warned that federal grant money could be “stripped” from sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants.

Municipal officials in such “sanctuary cities” as Newark, Jersey City, Princeton, and other towns limit their interaction with federal immigration officials and refuse to allow their police forces to be deputized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. They say they will continue to resist federal efforts to force their cooperation because it would make policing their communities more difficult and could endanger local health and the economy by making immigrants fearful of government.

Read more here.

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet