Targeted Escalation

The Trump regime's national campaign of political intimidation and terror began by targeting illegal migrants. It then escalated to visa holders, legal permanent residents, law firms, and universities, all while defying federal court decisions limiting or invalidating regime actions. Over the past month, the regime has escalated further--arresting a local judge in Wisconsin, the mayor of a major American city and declared New Jersey gubernatorial candidate, and laying the groundwork for an immigration-related confrontation in Illinois. Late Saturday, regime officials appeared to threaten the arrests of three Democratic House members. Federal senators, governors, and local leaders must employ tactics grounded in countervailing power if the regime is to be stopped.

I don't think there's much question that Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka (D-NJ) was well within his authority and rights to accompany Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Robert Menendez, Jr. (D-NJ), and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) on a May 9 oversight/inspection trip of the Delaney Hall detention facility being leased by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from GEO Group. His arrest by ICE for attempting to enter the facility was a calculated move, unquestionably designed to intimidate him and any other local official in the country from questioning, much less actively investigating or opposing, ICE activity on their soil.

Trump lackey and acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, seemed to almost gleefully celebrate Baraka's arrest via a tweet on Elon Musk's vanity social media site. This is the same Alina Habba who was sanctioned by a federal judge in 2023 for bringing a completely frivolous and baseless lawsuit on behalf of Trump, for which they were sanctioned nearly $1 million.

As Baraka said afterwards, "I was targeted there.”

Watson Coleman noted in a subsequent statement that her prior oversight inspection trips to the much smaller ICE detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey had taken place "without incident"--a fact that only lends weight to Baraka's claim that he was singled out for arrest.

Despite a 2023 federal district court ruling striking down as unconstitutional New Jersey's ban on private prisons with federal contracts (which the state has appealed), issues involving health, safety, construction, and utilities fall clearly within the jurisdiction of states and localities. Baraka has every right to have city inspectors go into Delaney Hall to see if the facility itself is actually safe, if the electrical wiring, fire alarms, etc. are in proper working order, if the facility is free of rats or other disease carrying creatures or insects, and so on. And he still has tools available to him to make it very painful for GEO Group to continue defying the city's inspection demands.

Each separate code violation (fire code, building code, occupancy permits, etc.) can carry its own fine. For "stop work" order defiance alone, GEO Group could be "subject to a penalty of $1,000 for each day in which [the company] fails to comply" according to the Newark city code. Depending on how the confrontation unfolds, GEO Group could face total potential fines in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars if violations continue for an extended period. The city could also potentially file criminal charges against GEO Group executives who made decisions to operate without permits and Delaney Hall site managers who refused inspectors entry.

And while New Jersey's U.S. Senators--Corey Booker and Andy Kim--both condemned Baraka's arrest and ICE's conduct during the confrontation, they have tools at their disposal to make the regime pay a much higher price for its police state conduct.

Kim, who is on the Senate Government Affairs and Homeland Security Committee, could demand hearings on the incident, and both could refuse unanimous consent to move any legislation or Trump nominees unless GEO Group immediately complies with Baraka's inspection demands. Indeed, Kim and Booker should make clear that if Trump nominates Habba as the permanent U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, they will filibuster her nomination.

The need for a forceful, decisive response from Democrats, independents, and "Never Trumper" ex-GOPers has never been greater, especially after a regime mouthpiece told POLITICO late Saturday that, “There will be more arrests coming"--the implication being that the three House Democrats who attempted to conduct oversight at Delaney Hall are next on the regime's hit list.

As I wrote in The Triumph of Fear, you have to go back to the Wilson administration to find an example of the political party in power using federal agents and the courts to go after a sitting member of Congress--specifically Socialist Party member Rep. Victor Berger of Wisconsin, who was charged under the infamous Espionage Act for the act of publishing a newspaper critical of America's entry into World War I.

Federal senators, along with state and local officials across the country, should be prepared to utilize all available tools to thwart regime actions that are unconstitutional, illegal, or otherwise endanger public safety.

And given the recent threats from DHS against Illinois officials and the three New Jersey House Democrats, I hope Governor Pritzker and his team as well as every single American are taking note of what's happening in New Jersey and preparing accordingly to defend themselves and those they love.

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