Diverse Middlesex County Community is Disserved by Commission that will Not Act to Protect Constituent Targets of ICE Terror
On December 18, immigrant supporters and defenders attended a Middlesex County Commissioner meeting in New Brunswick to call upon the commission to join 6 other NJ county commissioner bodies that have approved resolutions calling for the NJ legislature to pass the proposed “Immigrant Trust Act” which would legislatively prohibit NJ police from participating in civil immigrant law enforcement.
Asma Elhuni has reached out to this FightBackBetter editor with information about the diversity of Middlesex County residents and the vulnerability of the families of MIddlesex County facing uncertainty, government violence and illegal detention. It seems like Middlesex County is taking a “not my job” attitude in disregard of the safety and well being of 1000s of residents being subject to Supreme Court endorsed racial, ethnic, language and accent profiling, massive lawlessness and violence of masked faced ICE agents in makeshift uniforms, heavily armed and being protected from accountability by the lawless Trump administration.
Asma Elhuni’s presentation is positioned in the youtube video below of the recent Commissioner meeting on December 18. A transcript of her presentation follows.
This study reported by the American Immigration Council, written by the organization New American Economy together with the Middlesex Couny Regional Chamber of Commerce reported that 64% of STEM workers in Middlesex County are immigrants and 49% of locally owned businesses in Middlesex county are immigrant owned. Immigrants are part of the backbone of Middlesex County in every way including economically. It is mandatory for the Middlesex Commissioners to be protective and supportive of communities, famiilies, school children potentially, infants being targeted by heavily armed, masked ICE agents operating with total impunity – in total reckless disregard for the human rights of our communities, with victims being subjected to inhumane, unhealthy and recently in NJ deadly conditions at the detention camps which are being referred to widely as “concentration camps.”
Once the community members made their presentations, as you can see toward the end of the meeting video, there was defensiveness expressed by the commissioners and they claimed that they can not take a position on legislative matters even though 6 other NJ counties have already taken up the stance to protect their immigrant communities through support of the proposed Immigrant Trust Act. The commissioners ended up shutting the meeting down without any pledge to protect Middlesex immigrant citizens, residents, workers and visitors – or their supporters who are also under terror attacks across the nation by ICE and other federal police agencies.
The Middlesex County Commission is overwhelmingly of the Democratic Party so there is no political risk of losing support to the Republican Party by attempting to protect Middlesex communities from ICE terror – which impacts all – not JUST the immigrants.
Governor Elect Mikie Sherrill was successful by a wider than expected margin in part because of statements she made stating that she would protect NJ from the many harms of the Trump Administration. it looks like that protection is not making it to the floor in Democratic Party controlled Middlesex County – not yet anyway.
Asma Elhuni has stated that community forces will continue the full court press at the local and county level as well as at the state level. There are lobby dates scheduled for Trenton to pass the Immigrant Trust Act during the remaining legislative sessions of the current lame duck period.
Immigrant supporters will be out in force at the Statehouse in Trenton Mon. 1/5, Tues. 1/6, Thurs. 1/8, and Mon. 1/12. Participants should coordinate with Wind of the Spirit via Adam McGovern adam@wotsnj.org . More on the lobbying effort was reported in this recent edition of iCE Breaking News NJ.
Youtube link set to position to Asma Elhuni address to the Middlesex Commissioners
Hello, my name is Asma Elhuni. I’m an organizer with Resistencia En Accion NJ in New Jersey. We’re an immigrant rights group that serves Mercer. I drove an hour to be here today with you. I’ve heard that people have talked in the past about the ITA to you all and I’m going to state that leadership is not about avoiding controversy. It’s about taking responsibility.
So, I want to say that delaying or refusing to pass an ITA resolution does not keep this county neutral. It actually harms the immigrants. Your lack of action is actually action. It’s sending a very strong message to immigrants that you don’t care about them. And I don’t believe that you don’t care about them, but that’s the message that they’re getting. when we choose not to pass something like an ITA resolution. And let me tell you, I heard the excuses. I know you say, “Oh, we don’t pass anything that has to do with the legislature.” Why are there six other counties who did? (Pass ITA) That excuse is not good enough. I’m sorry. There are people in your county that are being abducted. There are warehouses where people are being ripped from their families under your district. (County) You guys are supposed to be leaders.
I’m sorry I’m talking to you all this way. I’m talking to all of you. I read some of your biographies. Some of you said you enjoy going to the theater with your wives in your free time. I wish immigrants can enjoy that, too. They’re terrified. While you go to bed comfortably at night, there are people who are terrified when they wake up and they’re terrified when they go to bed. And some of them have to hold the pain of not living with their family members because ICE came into our community.
I want to tell you a story of why ITA resolution is so important during this period of time. I on August 21st came out to (raid) we responded to a call that ICE was in our community. We responded and guess what ICE did to remove us from the area so they can continue to lie to a family to get them out of the house. You know what they did? They called the police department. The police department had no idea what collaboration and not collaboration is. Even though there’s a directive in place and ITA makes sure that every single police department is trained to know what they can and cannot do. They decided to arrest me that day. But I want you to know community is stronger. They showed up that day, disregarded what the police said. What they did (police) was they created a safe perimeter so that they ICE could continue to try to get this family out of their house. Community members came out, including some of our rapid responders who are red vests today, and we made sure that family was safe. You have no excuse. It is not okay to put this on the back burner. People are in fear every single day of their lives. You have a large immigrant community in New Jersey, about 500,000 people that are undocumented that are contributing members to our community. And I’m sorry I’m raising my voice, but this is urgent. We have a crisis on our hands.
Please forgive my anger here. And I want you to feel the pain that is behind the anger. Because when you go to sleep and you don’t hear these stories, we are face to face with the families that are saying, you know what, my child is now without their mother. This is true. My child can no longer see their mother. My child can’t eat because their father is now deported. These are real stories.
When will you show that you care? It is not okay that we waited this long for you to put something on the agenda. It is not okay that you’re not going to pass this today. I’m going to tell you,
I didn’t drive here so I can yell at all of you. I drove here because I’m trying to reach humanity and I believe in the good of humanity. And I believe some of you will rise up to the occasion and say, “You know what? We can’t. If there’s a rule that we can’t talk about any legislation, we’re going to change that today because guess what? Our community matters. Our community matters. And that’s why I’m here today. I urge every single one of you, please, I implore you, you have the power to say, you know what, today we want to put it on the agenda and we want to pass it because we urge the legislative body to protect the immigrants in our community. I don’t have to tell you what kind of times we’re living in. I don’t have to tell you. Every single one of you should know.
Every single one of you should know the times that we’re living in. We need your leadership more now than ever. So, we implore you. We believe in you. And we trust you will do the right thing. Thank you
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