By Allison Perrine
RED BANK – The borough became the first municipality in Monmouth County to approve a resolution calling for an end to immigrant detention after the Jan. 13 mayor and council meeting.
The unanimous decision last Wednesday urges county, state and federal officials to reunite immigrant families currently separated in detention centers in hopes of permanently ending the practice of immigrant detention and affording them due process in immigration. And it’s not only a national issue; it impacts residents in Monmouth County as well, according to Anna-Marta Visky, chair of Our Revolution Monmouth, a progressive political action organization which grew from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
“In a week where things were going very wrong in Washington, we really got something right at the local level,” said Visky, adding that the resolution’s approval brought her “a wave of relief” that night. “Immigration is a local issue here in Monmouth County, and the people who have experienced deportation – or live in fear of it – are in fact our friends and neighbors.”
Visky is an immigrant; she came to the U.S. a few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She was afforded due process and opportunities to build a life and contribute to American society, she said, but since the attacks she has watched “with deep concern and growing outrage” the ways in which the nation has “dehumanized and terrorized” migrants seeking refuge at the borders.
“Our demand is that we shut down the camps, close detention centers, reunite families, free detainees and allow migrants to go through the immigration and asylum process free of persecution,” said Visky, who is also the state coordinator of Our Revolution NJ. “We ought to look out for each other, protect each other and speak up for each other because fascism happens gradually, in front of our own eyes, while we look away. No one wakes up overnight in a fascist society.”
Red Bank is the first town to approve the resolution in Monmouth County as it has a “long and proud history of welcoming immigrants” to the community, according to the resolution. It is the eighth state-wide to approve it. And the timing of it is urgent, Visky said, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It has brought “huge financial and emotional” burdens on migrant families and has spread throughout crowded ICE (U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement) detention centers, she said. The impact has spread to Red Bank as well.
“Undocumented immigrants who are living in the community have also been impacted by COVID-19 due to job losses and not being able to access adequate healthcare with no means to seek economic relief due to structural barriers to government relief programs,” the resolution states. “Undocumented immigrants do not have access to necessary services in their communities such as housing and legal services which impacts them adversely even if they are released from detention as they cannot meet basic primary needs such as shelter and food.”
There are currently over 2,000 immigrants detained in the state who cannot afford lawyers, according to the resolution. The U.S. held nearly 70,000 immigrant children in detention in 2019 and more than 1,000 children have been assaulted per year. Conditions in detention centers are often “unacceptable” and do not include adequate food or water access, or sanitary or hygiene products. Seven children have died after being in Border Patrol custody.
“As a town, we support federal pandemic relief to migrant families and that as a town, we are going to invest our time and our skills into providing local relief as well,” said councilwoman Kate Triggiano Jan. 13 at the meeting when the resolution was approved. And her fellow council member Ed Zipprich added that as administrations change in Washington D.C. following President Joseph Biden’s inauguration, “a lot of this will be addressed” and he added it’s important to give support at the local level.
James Dabrowski, a teacher in the Perth Amboy School District, spoke at the meeting as well in support of the resolution. He said some of his young students have confided in him, sharing “heartbreaking” stories. “I’m very grateful and I’m proud that there are diverse, inclusive and equitable communities like Red Bank that strive to make sure all of their community members feel welcomed and a sense of belonging,” said Dabrowski.
Red Bank resident and Our Revolution Monmouth member Judy Pack thanked the mayor and council for bringing the resolution to Red Bank, calling federal detention policies at the borders “inhumane and unconstitutional and cruel.” She noted that immigrants are here in Red Bank and are neighbors, friends, essential workers, taxpayers, students and business owners – “and we need them,” she said.
“We need their ideas. We need their optimism. We need their determination. They have so much to offer our little town, our state and our country,” she added. “We don’t want to be foolish and turn our backs on them.”
This is not the first time Red Bank has worked with Our Revolution. In August the borough became the first in the state to approve a resolution supporting the Medicare For All Act of 2019 and, specific to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Healthcare Emergency Guarantee Act of 2020.
“We need to be vocal about the building blocks to this type of regime: Deportations, family separations, persecution, kids in cages, forced sterilizations and other atrocities are all phases in the process that need to be stopped, now,” said Visky. “Everyone should take part in this, everyone.”
This article was originally in the Jan. 21-27, 2021 edition of The Two River Times.
