SOUTH ORANGE, NJ —Community members from South Orange and neighboring townships came together Monday, Feb. 6, at a rally to support immigrant and Muslim communities and to urge South Orange leadership to adopt a “sanctuary city” resolution. And South Orange has drafted the requested resolution and will vote on it at its Monday, Feb. 13, meeting.
A sanctuary city is a community in which local law enforcement and public officials are directed not to aid federal efforts to find and prosecute undocumented immigrants beyond the scope of state law. This issue has been raised in municipalities across the country in light of President Donald Trump stating in interviews that he plans to deputize local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law — a federal jurisdiction — and that he will cut off federal funding to all sanctuary cities.
On Jan. 17, the Maplewood Township Committee passed a resolution designating the township as a “welcoming community,” essentially the same as a sanctuary city.
Organized by the newly formed SOMA Action group, this week’s rally took place in downtown South Orange at Spiotta Park.
SOMA Action announced that featured speakers included immigrant and Muslim community members Kambiz Roghanchi, Nureed Saeed, Ashraf Latif and Khalil Gibran Muhammad, who is a professor of race, history and public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Additional speakers included author and journalist Krystal Sital, South Orange Village President Sheena Collum and Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca.
Following the rally, community members marched to the Baird Center on Mead Street to attend a meeting of the South Orange Board of Trustees’ Legal and Personnel Committee, at which meeting the committee discussed the drafting of a resolution to address these concerns.
“South Orange has long been known for being a welcoming community and our draft resolution reaffirms our commitment to equal, respectful and dignified treatment to all people, regardless of their immigration status,” Collum told the News-Record earlier this week. “There is a lot of uncertainty and confusion over what role, if any, the local government and local law enforcement has in enforcing federal immigration laws and our draft resolution, which mirrors Maplewood’s, specifically spells out for our town what to expect.”
According to Collum, as it is with Maplewood, South Orange’s draft resolution declares that no department, employee or official of the village shall look into immigration statuses and that the South Orange Police Department will not enforce federal immigration laws or help facilitate ICE deportations, except when required to do so under state law. The SOPD will also not enter into contracts with the federal government allowing its its officers to be deputized to act as immigration agents.
“Our own attorney general directives prohibit law enforcement officers from engaging in racially-influenced policing and that no local law enforcement officer ‘shall inquire about or investigate the immigration status of any victim, witness, potential witness, or person requesting or receiving police assistance,’” Collum said. “The draft resolution, which was the topic of discussion at our Legal and Personnel Committee and was attended by dozens of residents, has been reported out favorably by the trustees and will be considered by the entire governing body on Monday. I am supportive of this as is our police chief and has been vetted by our own legal counsel as well as immigration attorneys who have volunteered their services. We’ve also heard substantial feedback from our residents, clergy members, community groups, and colleagues from our Board of Education and neighboring towns, who are also considering passing resolutions.”
The residents who began SOMA Action are certainly in favor of it.
“Immigrants, especially those who are Muslim and those who are undocumented, are currently under attack,” South Orange resident Anita Gundanna, a second-generation American and rally co-organizer, said in a press release. “We can help ensure the safety and security of our immigrant communities by making a strong statement at a local level. It is time to declare our cities, towns and villages sanctuaries of safety for all.”
“Our local government and police force should not do the work of carrying out immoral and unconstitutional federal policies,” SOMA Action co-founder Michael Paris said in the release. “State and local governments may not be commandeered by federal agencies for unlawful purposes.”
According to SOMA Action, the group organized the rally and march largely in response to Trump’s “anti-immigrant and Islamaphobic policies and orders.”
Among some of Trump’s controversial policies and orders are his threat to deport millions of immigrants and cancel Deferred Action to Childhood Arrivals, a program that provides work permits and protection from deportation to undocumented youth who enter this country at a young age. An executive order signed Jan. 27, and currently suspended, banned many immigrants, including refugees, from traveling to the United States from several predominantly Muslim nations. Additionally, the federal government threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which leaves numerous community members who hold non-immigrant NAFTA professional visas unsure of whether they will be able to renew them.
“Sanctuary is important to protect all immigrant communities — both documented and undocumented — who are vital contributors to our community,” Gundanna told the News-Record earlier this week via email. “It ensures — and in many cases reinforces — that the local authorities, including police, are not and should not be arms of federal immigration enforcement. There have been many instances where people were profiled and rounded up by local authorities for immigration status checks — with no justification — in neighborhoods that were predominantly Asian and Arab, and predominantly Muslim, which resulted in mass deportations. This can continue to happen anywhere without protections in place.
“It is already late in the game to join the movement to create sanctuaries of safety, but now, given the current Trump administration and the blatant threats and intentionally prejudicial orders, there are a lot of reasons why now it is more important than ever to ensure that the federal authorities are not able to implement unconstitutional and unlawful orders and use local authorities as often militarized enforcers,” Gundanna continued. “In fact, strong sanctuary city or similar resolutions include sections that local governments will challenge in a court of law federal mandates that violate constitutional rights, such as if the federal government were to mandate some type of immigrant or religion-based registry — again something Trump has threatened to do.”
And Gundanna stressed that this move is especially important for South Orange, to ensure that the village remains a bastion of welcome and safety to people from all walks of life.
“It is important and beneficial to South Orange to ensure that everyone feels safe and secure living and working in our town, and feels that they can be a part of our community — welcome here — and access basic services and supports if they are in need,” Gundanna told the News-Record. “It is critical in order to maintain our open and welcoming society to ensure that people are not at risk of being profiled and pulled aside for immigration status checks or registration by local authorities simply because of the color of their skin or their presumed religion.”
Nevertheless, there are many detractors who feel that cities and towns should not designate themselves as “sanctuary cities.” Some of these detractors argue that this undermines federal authority and weakens the nation. Others argue that, while it benefits undocumented immigrants, it will in the long run harm documented immigrants who worked diligently to come to this country legally, and citizens who might have to compete with undocumented immigrants for a finite amount of resources, and jobs and services.
But Gundanna does not believe these issues amount to anything.
“First off, sanctuary has been studied. It benefits communities who adopt a resolution,” Gundanna told the News-Record, citing a study performed by the Center for American Progress that shows an average higher income and reduced crime rate in sanctuary cities.
“Also, sanctuary cities do not aim to go against state attorney general mandates that state that, in the case of certain arrests, local police do have the authority to check and report immigration status,” Gundanna continued. “So that means that it is a complete and utter falsehood to say that sanctuary cities ‘harbor’ criminals.”
She added that sanctuary city resolutions are intended to adhere to state attorney general mandates, specifically, NJ AG Directive 2007-3, which outlines the responsibilities of municipal police regarding immigration checks.
And Collum finds the idea that such a resolution goes beyond the scope of the village’s purview unfounded.
“I don’t see how that can be the case,” Collum said. “Twenty percent of our population is foreign born and providing clarity to all our residents about how national issues will impact our local community is very important. There is nothing new presented in our draft resolution that hasn’t already been the practice of the village and all our departments. Now we will have something in writing.”
Another concern is that the president has threatened to pull all federal funding from sanctuary cities. But Gundanna is not overly concerned about this, saying she does not believe such an action would be constitutional and that several sanctuary cities are gearing up for a fight, just in case.
“We wouldn’t have to carry that torch alone,” Gundanna told the News-Record. “We would have much larger city-partners like Newark and Jersey City.”
Proponents of becoming a sanctuary city also point out that a withdrawal of federal funds would not hurt South Orange or Maplewood much, as they do not receive very much federal funding. While the South Orange-Maplewood School District does receive federal funding, it should not be affected by municipal resolutions.
But Collum admitted that the possible loss of federal funding did worry her, causing extreme diligence when drafting the resolution.
“This was a large concern for me but I feel comfortable with the language in our draft resolution that we will not lose funding as we specifically note that nothing we are enacting conflicts with any obligation imposed by federal or state statutes and regulations or directives of the New Jersey attorney general and the Essex County prosecutor,” Collum said. “There are roughly 300-plus jurisdictions — states, counties, cities, etc. — that have some form of sanctuary policy which represents about $27 billion in funding and, even in a worst case scenario, we will legally challenge any and all actions that threaten our funding with our partners around the country.
“The 10th amendment precludes the federal government from coercing state or local government to use their resources — at their expense — to enforce a federal regulatory program like immigration — that’s a fact,” Collum continued. “Moreover, there’s clear precedent set in Supreme Court rulings that the federal government can only withhold funding to localities if the money is relevant ‘to the federal interest in the project.’ We don’t currently — and haven’t — had any grants that relate to immigration. In discussing this topic with the leadership of the Board of Education, they do not feel they are in jeopardy of loss of any funds as the bulk of federal funds they receive are ‘mandatory’ and that non-mandatory funds and the structure of those programs — such as the school nutrition program — make them unlikely to be affected.”
SOMA Action is a group of friends and neighbors in South Orange and Maplewood who share a belief that America must resist many Trump administration policies and the broader right-wing agenda for the United States. According to the group, members are committed to working together at a local level to mobilize against the threats that the Trump administration poses to democracy and the rule of law.
To view the petition requesting that South Orange become a sanctuary city, visit https://www.change.org/p/south-orange-board-of-trustees-make-south-orange-a-sanctuary-city-stand-up-for-immigrants-southorangesanctuary.
“This is obviously a very complicated issue but I feel that I, along with our administration, attorneys, departments and subject matter experts have done our due diligence and have made a very strong case for the resolution that will be considered by the full Board of Trustees on Monday,” Collum said.
The Board of Trustees will meet Monday, Feb. 13, beginning at 7:15 p.m. at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, 1 SOPAC Way in South Orange.
UPDATE: This story was updated between being printed in the News-Record and posted on EssexNewsDaily to reflect new information and quotations from village President Sheena Collum that were unavailable at press time.
Photos Courtesy of Matthew Peyton
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