(Please visit links to access New Jersey towns’ resolutions.)
This is how the resolution that passed in Closter starts:
“COMMITMENT TO EQUAL, RESPECTFUL AND DIGNIFIED TREATMENT OF ALL PEOPLE, REGARDLESS OF THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS”
A resolution is a soft thing with no teeth, but it has a great smile!
It’s important for us to speak out against lawless actions in ICE immigration enforcement. Towns passing these resolutions represent a bottom-up repudiation of breaches of our Constitution by our government. Passing a resolution says that we take a stand: “We see what you’re doing, and we do not approve. We abide by our Constitution and think the government should, too.”
Getting a resolution passed in your town may not be as difficult as you think, especially in towns with Democratic leadership. Like so many things, it’s a numbers game, so you have to find allies willing to work with you. The more people you have, the better your position to win the yea votes of your mayor and council.
We worked with the Democratic Club of Closter and were able, through them, to bring out the numbers. In Closter, we have a Republican majority on the council, and our mayor is Republican, yet our resolution passed 5 – 1! So, it can be done!
Remember that what you accept in silence will be imposed on you. Many people are not informed enough and complacent in their belief that authoritarianism can’t happen in America. Just trying to get a resolution passed raises awareness of the troubling times we’re going through, so your efforts will be worthwhile!
Steps to Get a Resolution Against Illegal ICE Immigration Enforcement Passed in Your Town
Reach out to your neighbors and friends in your town:
Speak with your neighbors and friends in your town about passing a resolution against ICE lawlessness and the danger that presents—illegal kidnappings, concentration camps, separating families. Show them the resolutions that other towns have passed.(1)
Ask if any of them knows a councilperson in your town. Contact the council member and ask if they’d sponsor a request for a resolution to be put on the agenda.
Find out if there’s an organizer in your town with an email list, someone who hosts protests or who has hosted a No Kings protest. Find a local activist group.(5)
Identify Allies:
Connect with local organizations or groups that share your goals. Email a letter to your local Democratic Club about why you think a resolution is a good idea. Then, go to a meeting and speak about getting a resolution passed in your town. Town council members may also be members of the town Democratic Club. Ask them if you can send your letter of request to them. Ask the Democratic club if they will email your letter and sample resolutions to all the Democratic club members. This is how you get a lot of support.
Some towns don’t have a Democratic Club, but clubs in nearby towns may have residents from your town as members. Contact those clubs or go to those meetings and find out. I initially joined the Democratic Club of Closter to get support for my rallies, and have found them to be staunch allies in all the work I do.
Get all your supporter in an email group. This is very important, as you must be able to contact, update, rally them for rapid response.
Compile Contact Information:
If you don’t know who are your local elected officials, look them up on your town website. Go to your town’s council meetings. You can attend via Zoom, if you don’t want to go in person. Get to know your mayor and council members via the meetings. Once you’re comfortable with which member(s) you think would be receptive to a resolution, contact them and explain what you’re looking for.
Submit Your Proposal:
It’s not necessary to have the support of a council member to get something on the agenda. To get something on a town council meeting agenda, you typically need to submit a request or proposal to the town clerk or any council member ahead of the meeting, following specific guidelines set by the town. It’s important to check the town’s website for any deadlines and requirements for submission.
You may have a lawyer as an ally, who can write a sample resolution that you can submit. You can cobble together a sample resolution from other towns’ resolutions yourself. Or, you can simply submit your request for the town to write its own resolution. Be strategic from the outset to ensure that you’re not asking for something the town cannot legally provide and that what you ask for is reasonable.
Write a clear statement to the council member or town clerk, explaining why a resolution is important and how it benefits the community. Keep it simple and short. The time to elaborate will be at the council meeting when your proposal will be discussed. Include sample resolutions from other towns with this letter. My letter was very simple.(2)
Wow Them With Presence At The Meeting When Your Resolution Is On The Agenda:
Get as many supporters as you can to come to that meeting, or have them attend via Zoom, to show community backing. There will be a time for public comment
Prepare your statements to read/say at the council meeting.(3) Be ready to explain clearly the resolution and your reasons for asking for one. You have 5 minutes to do this, which is the allotted time for public comment in most towns.
Make sure the people who come with you will highlight the insanity of having masked, armed, immune people with free rein in your town. Encourage them to speak in support of passing the resolution, both in person and via Zoom. Each person has 5 minutes to speak.
Encourage them to ask questions. Ask your Police Chief what power police have to protect citizens in your town. Ask about any situation you feel uncomfortable about. Think hypothetically: Can ICE wait by schools, at school bus stops, come to your door looking for someone who works for you. Can ICE come to your workplace? Do you have to let ICE on your property or into your house with only an administrative warrant? What is the difference between a judicial warrant and an administrative warrant? What are your rights as a citizen and private property owner?
Put your Police Chief on the spot. They have worked very hard for a long time to get where they are, and ICE has more power in their town than they do. Highlight the injustice of this and your alignment with local law enforcement. ICE has an average of 47 days of training. Imagine how your police feel about this. Make this an emotional issue. Talk about why it’s important to formally object to breaches of the Constitution in ICE procedures and whatever other problems you have with ICE and immigration enforcement.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that every person who holds elected office has sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. What you’re asking for is for them to do their sworn duty. Police have had their hands tied, but your mayor and council have more freedom to act in defense of democracy.
There was a supporter at this meeting stage in Closter, and he submitted his coverage to The Pascack Press.(4)
Follow Up:
It’s unlikely that the town will adopt, verbatim, another town’s resolution. Ask the councilperson who has submitted the resolution to the council to keep you informed of the progress throughout the process. Follow up with a phone call to the council member who supports you, or to the town clerk.
If you sent your initial letter to a councilperson, ask them to give you an advance copy of the resolution your town has written.
The resolution they offer may be suitable. Or not. If the resolution includes a good finger-wagging, that should do. See the other town’s resolutions. The aim is to show disapproval of unconstitutional federal activities in your town.
Be prepared to defend your rejection of a resolution that is not what you were looking for, and to counter with what you want. Be adamant about getting the provisions you feel are the most important included, and have a copy of those to give to a council member or the town clerk at the end of your comment period. Understand that local law is subject to federal law, and that your town must abide by that. But, you are not a beggar at the gate! You are a taxpaying citizen, defending your Constitutional rights and your Constitution. Your are asking your elected officials to carry out their sworn duty.
Be Patient:
You may not have to ask the town to amend its first go at a resolution, in which case, patience is moot. The first resolution offered by my town was not a resolution at all, but a repetition of the 2017 New Jersey Attorney General’s guidelines for police interaction with ICE. I made a strong statement during the speaker portion of that meeting, outlining what provisions were most important to have in the resolution, and taking the mayor and council to task, because those guidelines were not published on the town website for all to see.
I was prepared, because we were given a copy of the first resolution in advance. It’s important for as many resolution supporters to be at this meeting. Supporters should overwhelm the room.
Others who were there in support voiced their concerns and opinions. Opponents also spoke out, but there were only two of them, outnumbered by us in reason and purpose.
This is why it’s so important to show up with supporters, in person or via Zoom. Allies demonstrate strong community interest. If the resolution is not what you wanted, state why in as many ways as you can. Each speaker has the opportunity to object and ask for a better resolution in the time allotted.
But, if you do have to ask for a rewrite, when the town comes back with another resolution, one that better conforms to what you want, the council may vote on the resolution at that meeting or a subsequent meeting. Again, the more people who show up, the better your chances of getting the resolution you want passed. You must persist!
When the day for the vote arrives, pack the meeting room with your supporters to put pressure on the officials to adopt the resolution. It can be helpful to have “credible” figures, such as lawyers and professors, present to speak in support. But if you have the numbers, who they are is not an issue.
Celebrate Success:
If the resolution passes, inform the community and local media to spread the word. Send a copy of the resolution to the Bergen County Board of Commissioners. In Bergen County, the Bergen County Board of Commissioners has passed its own resolution, which I included in this guide. (1)
I wish you well with your efforts! You can do this. Persistence takes the day. Remember that what you’re asking for is not anything like an impossible quest. You’re asking your town to publicly state that it believes in the Constitution of the United States, something that every person that serves as an elected official has sworn to defend.
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(1)Resolutions:
Closter: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YglkKf7V6KFQNiKHG7B0gquj07youIZica-GBWci1hc/edit?usp=sharing
Teaneck: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16XE_XP2ebtMVnCPrr618WBOEOmR6Tj1d7JOVFsbtVVc/edit?usp=sharing
Bergen County: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KMR07BDx4yX9D8nBw3gsIDVmo_aNUAebqv1vBeHIbrY/edit?usp=drive_link
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(2)Sample letter to get on the agenda:
| 1/30/2026 Dear Ms. Latner, Please acknowledge receipt of this letter to Mayor John Glidden, asking for an executive action or other appropriate means of making Closter unavailable to ICE for easy pickings. We must protect our residents. We want no more neighbors taken to uncertain futures here! I have included a link to Jersey City Mayor Solomon’s statement and Executive Order. Please pass this along, and let me know if and when it will be entertained by the council. I’ll show up, with others, to support this action, much needed in these troubled times. Thanks so much, Bonnie Bayardi Dear Mayor Glidden, I’m Bonnie Bayardi, a Closter resident outraged by the illegal activity of ICE in our area. New Jersey has legislated the way for resistance to ICE, being a sanctuary state with statewide rules of police engagement with ICE. Because I live in Closter, I’m asking you to emulate Mayor Solomon of Jersey City, and protect our town from the violence, pain, and fear ICE brings. I attach Mayor Solomon’s statement and executive order, a template for what you might do for our town. Our future depends on not having our residents terrified to come out for a loaf of bread, and this administration shows no signs of stopping their assaults on our rights. Please be a part of ending that. Respectfully, Bonnie Bayardi https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/news/protectingjerseycitysimmigrants |
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(3)sample letter to read before the council which the resolution will be discussed.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13bd2GXp-V7tDj_1wQeO897EJ_kLqbmJbvHWZg7Oi3sg/edit?usp=sharing
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(4)Participant account sent to local press
| Wednesday evening, I attended a meeting of the Borough Council of Closter, NJ, a neighboring town. On the agenda was a proposal that the council adopt a resolution that would constrict, to the greatest extent that New Jersey and U.S. law allow, the activities of ICE in the town and would clarify the relative powers and degree of coordination between ICE and the local police department. Approximately 80 residents in person and an indeterminate number on Zoom showed up to express their concerns on this matter. The meeting had a Norman Rockwell quality: everyone was respectful; speakers expressed their concerns calmly and professionally; council members seemed to listen sympathetically. A local resistance leader pointed out that the town is 40% immigrants; “We have to protect our immigrant families and children,” she said. A child psychologist used her five minutes at the microphone to note the trauma children experience when their parents are accosted or taken away. A history teacher reported that the number of ICE detainees today far exceeds the number of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps in 1939. Others mentioned the bedrock importance of rule of law in America vs. the lawlessness of ICE; the atmosphere in town of security and predictability that could be upended by ICE operations; the mutual respect between residents and police that would be in jeopardy. One said, “Immigrants work for a lot of us” – at which the mayor chimed in, “they work for me.” The speaker continued, “What happens if ICE agents come to my home and attempt to take away an immigrant worker?” “Shall I,” she added, looking across the room at the chief of police, “call the police?” His response: “Well, you can call the police, but…” his voice trailed off. “We can’t arrest ICE agents,” he finally said. No vote was taken because a resolution was not on the floor. But the mayor promised that the borough attorney would draft an appropriate resolution by the next meeting in two weeks. What struck me about this meeting was the palpable sense, which seemed shared by mayor, council members and residents, that the borough faced a hostile foreign force against which it had few defenses. As if an asteroid were heading the town’s way and all that could be done – and done urgently – was take protective measures. And that whatever trust townspeople once had in the federal government’s commitment to keeping them safe, had not only evaporated, but had flipped to fear that their government had become a real and present threat to their safety. |
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(5)Local activist groups
For Bergen/Rockland area, this site’s listings may be useful