By MICHAEL GRAHAM 

In less than four months, New Jersey voters head to the ballot box to vote for Governor during a period of history that finds our American ideals under assault in a way this country has not experienced since perhaps the Civil War.  Men and women with a deep love of country, who treasure the idea that all men and women are created equal, that we live and would die not for any one man, but for the principles of the rule of law that built the most powerful nation the world has ever known, must hold our candidates to account and ensure they resist the violations and breaches of those principles by the regime currently occupying the Executive Branch of our federal government.

The Trump regime is flooding our streets with masked individuals who have no interest in our cherished values, like Due Process of Law, and are cowardly snatching people off the streets or storming peaceful parks with masks over their faces and with no identifying nameplate or badge.  I have family and friends in law-enforcement who always conducted their work with pride, proudly displaying their names and badge numbers as they protect and serve the people.  These masked thugs, whoever they are, whatever agency, if any, they actually represent, should be ashamed.

Whoever we elect in November must stand against this vileness that could easily lead to copy-cats kidnapping people in broad daylight, and that will certainly see the abuses of these alleged federal agents – they won’t show their badges to prove it – invading the streets and peaceful parks of New Jersey.  No one’s life is improved by these gestapo tactics.  To the contrary, they tear at the fabric of society, stoking fear and anger.

There is no room in a free society, let alone our great State, for jackboot thugs terrorizing our citizenry with abhorrent, abusive displays of force as seen on July 7^th in Los Angeles where it is not even clear anyone was arrested or why they were there other than to terrorize a city that serves as a popular target for extreme rightwing hate (Troops and federal agents briefly descend on L.A.'s MacArthur Park in largely immigrant neighborhood).  This kind of intimidation, this disruption of the daily lives of our citizens, is not just morally reprehensible, but flat out anti-American.  It spits in the face of our values and plays to the vileness of authoritarians seeking to bend people to their will with fear.  The very founding principle of this country states that the people hold the power and government serves their will. Who did our government serve with this disgusting display of military intimidation?  The answer, of course, is the flailing president who believes government power exists to further his fragile ego and not the general welfare of United States citizens.

And the situation is only getting worse.  What sick, sadistic, poisoned mind cheers a hell hole called “Alligator Alcatraz” designed to hold individuals snatched off the streets by masked thugs refusing to provide identification?  The facility is not only reportedly subject to abhorrent conditions, like toilets that don’t flush, freezing to sweltering conditions, mosquitoes, and giant insects (Inside Alligator Alcatraz: migrant detainee conditions | Miami Herald), but also flooding near electrics (The 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention centre was built in eight days - but problems are emerging | US News | Sky News) and food with worms and water scarcity (Detainees being held at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ describe conditions – NBC 6 South Florida).  If those horrific conditions are not bad enough, the facility can allegedly withstand Category 2 hurricanes, but in the last ten years, seven of thirteen Florida hurricanes have been category 3 or higher (The 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention centre was built in eight days - but problems are emerging | US News | Sky News), and the State has no plans to move detainees for Category 1 or 2 hurricanes (State lawmaker says "Alligator Alcatraz" will not be evacuated for category 1 or 2 hurricane - CBS Miami).  The Camp Mystic tragedy (Texas flooding aftermath: Desperate search for survivors as death toll surpasses 100 | Live Updates from Fox News Digital) should be a wakeup call to the destruction that can be unleashed by sudden weather events.  What if a hurricane strengthens rapidly before detainees can be evacuated?  What if the facility cracks under the pressure of a sustained, slow-moving Category 2 storm?  Why this utter failure of imagination by Federal and State government?

We’ve heard reports of green card holders being wrongfully detained (Green Card Holder Wrongfully Detained by ICE For Nearly 50 Days - Newsweek) – people who went through the process of obtaining permission to be in this country, and who are afforded the same protections as any America, are having their rights snatched out from under them.  We’ve heard horror stories of people dying in ICE detention (Two more Ice deaths put US on track for one of deadliest years in immigration detention | US immigration | The Guardian), including a Canadian Citizen (Canadian Citizen Dies in ICE Custody in Florida - The New York Times), and the agonies that detained pregnant women have faced (Detained immigrant's pregnancy fails while in ICE custody - Nashville Banner).  This “enforcement” regime isn’t just anti-American, it isn’t just inhumane, it is inhuman.

We are just six months into an administration gleefully shredding our Constitution, that sacred document gifted to us by the philosopher-warriors who founded this nation.  Enshrined in that document is the right to due process, the right to have your person and effects secure from government seizure without a warrant, the right to confront your accusers, the right to have your day in court.  Who voted for a society where people can be approached on the street by masked vigilantes demanding to see our papers?  Who voted for performative displays of violence against our citizenry?

Do not think for one second these acts of terror will be limited to places right wing extremists and their propaganda mouthpieces like Fox News, and the utterly grotesque Twitter (Musk's Grok praises Hitler, shares antisemitic phrases in new posts) despise.  They will come to the great State of New Jersey with a vengeance, and we are all at risk.  The Big Ugly Bill, signed into law over our Independence Day – a holiday that should always be celebratory, but has been marred by this anti-Americanism – provides $350 billion dollars to establish the largest, most unaccountable law enforcement agency in the country, all while slashing medical and food security benefits for the poorest, most vulnerable of our population (What's in the big bill that Trump has signed into law | AP News).  Law-enforcement and immigration-enforcement are necessary for our nation’s security.  But this iteration of “law-enforcement” and “immigration-enforcement” are a joke.  There is no protecting and serving when we give permission to any group to conduct nameless, faceless sweeps without accountability (ICE agents are carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown behind masks | CNN).  There is no justice in immigration-enforcement when green cards are revoked without prior warning and at the whims of one government official (Rubio Says He Has Revoked 300 or More Visas in Trump’s Deportation Push - The New York Times), when people are shuttled to different facilities without any knowledge of where they are or how to contact loved ones or legal counsel (Without Access to Counsel, Detained Immigrants Face Increased Risks of Prolonged Detention and Unlawful Deportation | American Civil Liberties Union), when the government continues to hold people in foreign gulags despite judicial orders (Judge demands answers after El Salvador says US still controls deported migrants | wusa9.com), or when public officials, elected by the public to represent their interests, are denied any means to hold these agencies to account (5 Lawmakers in California and New York Are Denied Access to Federal Detention Facilities - The New York Times).  If any one person can be swept off the streets by masked men, denied legal representation, and/or sent to a foreign gulag without judicial order, ALL of us can suffer that very same fate – how would an American denied legal representation or a day in court prove their citizenship and wrongful detention?  That is the antithesis of America and the values we hold dear.

This is a very real attack on the fundamental nature of what it means to be an American and the rights we used to believe our country stood for and would always fight for.  Make no mistake, this is coming to New Jersey.  We have an election in November and our candidates, Democrat and Republican alike, must stand up against this anti-Americanism that threatens to tear the fabric of our society, our belief in life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, due process and equal protection under the law.  It’s time for our leaders to say enough is enough.

Michael Graham is the Chief Executive Officer of InsiderNJ.