U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8), Jersey City Ward E Councilman James Solomon, and Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) are teeing off on President Donald Trump (R) over a lawsuit seeking to halt sanctuary city policies in Jersey City and Hoboken.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Two weeks ago today in Newark, we saw a blatant act of intimidation by the Trump Administration meant to silence me and my colleagues. And we resisted. Now, the Trump Administration is attempting yet again to intimidate elected leaders and undermine the values that define our great state,” Menendez said in a statement.
“But we will not bend to the Trump Administration – not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Our support for our communities and everyone who calls them home is unwavering. This great state of ours is for the strong and for the resilient. We have withstood many challenges before, and we will stand strong in this moment for that which we know is right – together.”
Menendez was at the Delaney Hall federal detention center in Newark when Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democratic candidate for governor, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for trespassing.
That case was dropped this week, though U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-10), who was also in attendance, was charged with assault for making contact with ICE agents during the ruckus.
Newark and Paterson, as well as all four city mayors, were named as defendants in the three-count federal lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Newark yesterday.
“[Yesterday], the federal government filed a baseless, wasteful, and dangerous lawsuit against Jersey City and cities across New Jersey – all because we refuse to let ICE into our cities to kidnap our residents and send them to foreign gulags,” said Solomon, a Jersey City mayoral candidate.
“My job is to protect every Jersey City resident from harm, including the harm caused by the federal government. I’ll keep doing my job – and, to use a phrase he’s heard many times before, we’ll see Trump in court.”
O’Dea, another progressive Democrat in the mayoral race, said his administration would never back down to Trump and called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“Jersey City isn’t going to back down to Donald Trump and let him threaten people in our community — not with me as Mayor anyway,” he began.
“This frivolous lawsuit is another example of the Trump administration weaponizing the legal system for political purposes, and we’re not going to stand for it. Every candidate for Mayor should stand strong against this attack on our city and take action to protect families.”
A third candidate in the race, Mussab Ali, reiterated that his Jersey City Defense Plan, created specifically to push back against the Trump administration’s policies, was released on Monday, as HCV first reported.
“Many of the Challenged Policies restrict the free flow of voluntary information from local governments and officers to federal immigration officials … Defendants’ Challenged Policies also prohibit ICE from entering jail facilities to interview detainees who may be subject to immigration enforcement—at least without the detainee’s written consent (which they virtually never provide),” the lawsuit alleges.
“In general, the Challenged Policies broadly restrict federal immigrant officers’ access to aliens in Defendants’ custody … This also conflicts with federal law, which establishes a system of civil administrative warrants as the basis for immigration arrest and removal and does not require or contemplate use of a judicial warrant for civil immigration enforcement.”
I am so ashamed of this state and county. To those of you who are putting illegals (that’s the correct term, not the sanitized revisionist term you want to use) above your neighbors, your own voters, shame on you. Have the good sense not to fly American flags this Memorial Day, Flag Day or Fourth of July.
As for Rob Menendez Jr. he is in a special class of shamelessness to be an elected official who owes his entire career to a man who was convicted of accepting bribes from a foreign nation! Your father betrayed his country. Benedict Arnold of Hudson County, if not the entire Senate. You should wear a paper bag over your head.
But to my neighbors: you voted for them, it’s your fault!
(and no, I am not MAGA either)
Easiest way to get votes around here is to bash Trump – not very original or helpful. Yes, Trump is pretty loathsome – but the Dems were prepared to trot out a feeble 80 something and pretend we had no right to ask questions. Sorry, those days are over, nationally, statewide and in Hudson County. The Party owes us a better rationale for why we should vote for its candidates- simply saying ” Trump is awful and we are not him ” is not enough.
The same pathetic Democratic Party Desperation.
No positive message or plan.
No matter how much you cry, Democrat officials and Democrat would-be criminal illegal voters are not above the law.
No matter how much you lie, Americans had enough and sent a message to you last November. We want our country back from the likes of those who defy the law and the Constitution.
No one is above the law not even corrupt officials who break their oath of office and gaslight us.
Oh look Baby Bob is acting all tough… he was practically in tears last year when his Nepo baby meal ticket almost went away thanks to Ravi Bhalla stepping up and scaring Bob Jr.
Jr came to Hoboken begging for help- now he’s stabbing Fisher and Ramos and others who stood with him in the back by supporting Jabbour.