6 events in Passaic County with a date

Kean risks voters' rage on immigrant facility

By: Charles Stile
Political Stile
USA Today Network

..... President Donald Trump and his political advisers are doing everything in their power to prevent a midterm onslaught in November. [2026]
..... They resorted to an unprecedented "mid-decade" redrawing of House districts in Texas in hopes of stockpiling a Republican firewall. an effort to cerate new national voter ID restrictions -a step that is certain to depress the votes of minority voters, a core Democratic constituency - is marching through Congress.
..... And then there are the right-wing scare tactics, warning voters that a Democratic takeover in the House in November [2026] could lead to Trump's third impeachment, or worse: the start of a socialist takeover of the Untied States.
..... so with all these desperate, do-anything-ti-takes steps to hold on to power now being pushed by Republicans, it's baffling to watch Team Trump's moves in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, a Republican redoubt that stretches from the affluent suburbs of Union county to the rural northwest of Warren County. Trump has done everything in his power to imperil the political future future of its cautious, stay-little Republican Thomas H. Kean Jr.
..... Instead of ahivng Ken;s back, Trump has put a bull's-eye on it.
..... It seems that almost on a weekly basis, Trump is increasing the hopes and odds of the Democrats eager to recapture the 7th District after losing in in 2022 to Kean. It would be a plum pickup in the Democrats' goal of retaking contrition of the House, fuels by an anti-trump backlash.
..... Trump, bizarrely, is doing everything he can to help.
..... First, there is his petulant and ridiculous attempt to block funding for the long-awaited Gateway tunnel, which will being stability and confidence to thousands of commuters who live in Kean's district while providing some 1,000 construction jobs. Trump;s strange - and likely retaliatory - behavior was finally spurned by a federal judge, who ordered him to release the project's funidng. Trump's behavior throughout the ordeal was political god for Democrats and position for Kean, who not so long ago cast himself as a champion of "Trump's agenda."

Fury in Roxbury

..... But last week [02/19/2026] Kean's district became the latest location for the massive and unpopular purge of undocumented migrants when local officials confirmed that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has purchased a 470,000-square foot warehouse on Route 46 in Roxbury Township. the Morris County facility will be a temporary holding en for detainees before they are shipped off to another jail. The news comes after a week-long cat-and-mouse game about whether the facility was acquired for the purpose of warehousing humans. No, there was no purchase of a Roxbury facility, officials told Gothamist, which first reported the potential sale. By week's end, [02/20/2026] well, they confirmed the deal.
..... This unleashed a remarkable joint statement of fury form the all-Republican Roxbury Township council, which has been on red alert about the warehouse since December, [2025] when The Washington Post first reported plans by DHS to vastly expand tis nationwide network of detention facilities. Roxbury was listed as one of those possible sites.
..... Local officials moved to block the plan and ramped up efforts to persuade the owner, Dalfen Industrial, to consider other redevelopment options sweetened by tax abatement Dalfen wet with ICE.
..... The suburban location, Roxbury officials argued, was not suitable for such a project. The township's sere, water and first responders simply are not equipped for such a massive newcomer, they wrote in their statement. And throughout the town's push-back, officials said they reached out to "every level of government," including the local member of Congress, Kean.
..... And Kean's performance? He flunked.
..... "Despite repeated outreach our federal representative Congressman Tom Kean Jr., did not engage to the level we had hoped to provide the advocacy our resident dents deserved," they wrote.
..... Ouch.
..... This isn't one of those press release from the left-leaning groups that have dogged Kean since he pursued the seat in 2020. this was from a reliable suburban Republican township that Trump carried by 16 points in 2024. These are also Kean voters. He will need them if he is going to keep his head above water amid a blue tide this fall. [2026]

What has Kean said?

..... On Saturday [02/21/2026] Kean put out an anodyne statement that walked the line between showing solidarity with the angry Roxbury leaders and toeing the line of Trump's immigration crackdown.
..... "I understand the frustration and emoting this situation has cerated," Kean said. "The residents of Roxbury can be assured that I will not stop fighting for a workable solution. the overwhelming majority of residents, along with the sate and the country, support stopping the flow of Fentanyl. We need to, and will, keep a level head as we continue to work constructively to deliver results."
..... I reached out to Kean's office on Monday February 23, [0206] to ask just what that "workable solution: is, to no avail. but later in the day, his office trumpeted a new proposal, the "Local Taxpayer Protection Act of 2026," which would allow municipalities like Roxbury to "apply" for federal "grants" if they suddenly fine themselves playing the unwanted host of Trump's detention dragnet.
..... But I don't think the strain of sewer and ratables is really what is driving the opposition, nor will grants soothe it.
..... Before Trump;s election in 2024, the idea of a nationwide deportation dragnet was an abstraction, a hyperbolic Trump talking point for the campaign. But after the nightmare of Minneapolis, no community wants to be a locus of protests or have U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vans shutting into town at all hours of the night. No town is eager to welcome the moral travesty that is Trump's purge. Yes, there are some bad actors who need to go, but most statistics so far shown that most detainees have no violent records.
..... The Roxbury reaction could easily be classified as a classic case of NIMBYism - not in my back year - but the truth is, finding a backyard anywhere in the United States that wants ICE as a neighbor is going to be increasingly difficult. A Marist Poll conducted for NPR this month [02/2026] found that 64% of the public believes that ICE has gone "too far" in its aggressive roundups.
..... But right now, ICE has set up shop in Tom Kean Jr's backyard, and it looms as a potential festering sore for the 2026 midterm campaign. It also a reminder that Trump couldn't care less whether his immigration sweeps or price-inflating tariffs are politically damaging to his Republican "allies." His "America First" agenda is really the "Trump First" agenda. The president tis supposed to be helping the Republicans hold the House, but he simply can't help himself.

HOME