Hightstown Residents Fume Over GOP 'Sanctuary City' Survey

Hightstown residents at the Borough Council's Monday meeting spoke out solely against the Fathers' Day weekend phone survey by Republican council candidates Skye Gilmartin and John Archer.

All nine members of the public who spoke about the survey, which the candidates , said they were upset with how the situation was being handled. The majority of them, including some from East Windsor, said they strongly supported Hightstown Resolution 2005-66, which called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to, in part, “not create needless mistrust and fear of the Hightstown Borough Police Department and other municipal agencies.”

Many residents have seen the resolution as also allowing undocumented immigrants to talk to local police without automatic fear of reprisal, though that is not specifically mentioned in the resolution. (For a full copy of the text, see the PDF in the attached gallery.)

Gilmartin provided Patch with the following transcript of the automatic phone survey:

What does Hightstown have in common with Camden, Newark and Trenton? They are all listed as Sanctuary Cities!

Please take a moment to answer two short questions; this is a public opinion survey.

Do you think the label of a Sanctuary City has had a negative impact on the quality of life in Hightstown? Press 1 for Yes, press 2 for No.

Do you think it is in Hightstown's best interest to uphold the laws of the United States of America and abolish the status of Sanctuary city? Press 1 for Yes, press 2 for No.

Thank you for your participation. This survey was paid for by Friends of Archer and Gilmartin.

Borough Democratic Club Chair and former councilman Walter Sikorski, who was on the council when the 2005 resolution was adopted, noted that the oft-used term “sanctuary city” many employ to describe the borough is a creation of the media and not a technical term.

“Having served on council seven years I’m well aware of the structural problems facing the borough’s budget. Somehow I don’t think they’re caused by immigrants, documented or otherwise,” he added.

Sikorski said the call gave an impression of anti-immigrant sentiment, which he said is part of the borough’s unfortunate past.

“We do know that the history of Hightstown is a history of bigotry,” he said, noting the town’s past as a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan. “We have reached a fortunate plateau where I felt that at this particular time we were sort of at peace at each other and with our problems in a tolerant way

“I hope we stop trying to divide our community and work towards bringing it together, and not use these techniques. And I would hope that those people who are using those techniques would cease and desist, because I don’t think it’s helping make Hightstown any better.”

East Windsor resident Francois Laforge, a member of the immigrants’ rights group Unidad Latina en Accion NJ and a French immigrant himself, had stronger words for the Republican candidates.

“I read the letter and the comments on the East Windsor Patch… and I was, like the 2 persons before, appalled by what I would describe as pure racism,” he said.

“They fly in the face of reality. It’s a big lie to incriminate the immigrant community, and especially the undocumented community, with the lowering of the property values. This is a complete lie considering the economic crisis right now and the effect of the housing bubble.

“It’s an attack on immigrants,” he continued. “I’m an immigrant myself and I won’t tolerate that. I think it’s a real shame elected people are able to communicate racist comments.”

Local activist Lenore Isleib said she was “personally very, very proud of Resolution 2005-66 and very proud of the people who passed it because its goal was to promote understanding between the immigrant community and the police department.” The goal, she said, was to make immigrants comfortable with calling the police for help.

“It’s always a good idea to poll residents and to give them a voice in the community, however… the questions in the poll should not be slanted to bring about a specific desired result, but should be worded in order to learn the truth about what people are thinking,” Isleib continued. “Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, contribute in so many ways to the vitality of Hightstown. Main Street is alive with shops and shoppers. Hightstown is a safe place to live, work, shop, walk and worship.”

David Abalos of East Windsor, a professor of religious studies and sociology at Seton Hall University who often speaks in support of the borough's Hispanic community, addressed the council as well. He said he was appearing primarily as a member of the . The son of a Mexican immigrant, he said he was angered by the survey.

The resolution, he said, did not create the “sanctuary city” label. “I always saw that as a resolution which had an intent to create an environment in which people would feel secure and safe and also where they would be able to come forward to report crimes. And we all know that if crime was not reported, it endangers everybody.”

Shifts in national demographics, Abalos continued, show that Hispanic people are making up a larger and larger portion of the population across the U.S.

“I respectfully disagree very, very strongly [with the letter] because it’s an attitude that comes across,” he said. “It’s an attitude of being anti-immigrant, it’s an attitude of being anti-Latino. I’m a member of this community, and of that community, and so when I read things like this and I hear people speak about it and I think about the fact that people live in fear, then it leaves me very, very uneasy; as a matter of fact it leaves me angry.”

Borough resident Don Fallon said he too was upset by the candidates’ letter and survey and that he supports Resolution 2005-66.

“In my opinion, this letter incites unacceptable intolerance and discrimination in the community, and it does so by inaccurately or incorrectly indicating that our safety, our quality of life, our property values and our economic stability have been adversely impacted by Resolution 2005-66, and by implicating that they’ve been adversely impacted by either the documented or undocumented immigrant part of our community,” he said.

“I don’t quite understand why we have to ask people if they dislike their neighbors or not,” said former Democratic councilman Gene Sarafin. “That letter is trying to revive hatred. I don’t think we need hatred. I think we should rethink what we’re doing. The poll is worthless, it’s a push-poll—whatever your results are, it’s meaningless.”

The community, he said, should help get a comprehensive, national immigration reform bill pass, “and not beat up on people that come here from foreign countries… We create the environment for them to be here, not them.”

John Archer, Gilmartin’s running mate, said after the meeting that he was primarily concerned with the borough’s online reputation and who it may attract. “The bottom line is, Google it,” he said of the “sanctuary city” term. “It will come up. Hightstown is listed as a sanctuary city, along with Trenton, Camden, Newark and others.”

“If you have a choice, if you look and you’re a gang member or whatever you are and you’re looking to do some illegal things, and you know that these places are sanctuary cities, like Trenton, where the perception is ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ you may want to go there.”

Asked about others' statements that the poll had a basis in race, he said, “It’s not racially motivated. It’s law-and-order motivated.”

Former Democratic councilman Dan Buriak said during the meeting that he was tired of controversy in the borough. “Any of you who do anything that are in public positions, please think about the repercussions of any move you’re making before you make it,” he said.

“There have been no comments tonight about anything else except one issue, and to all the people that came, obviously a very emotionally charged issue, but here we go again. We need to move away from this process. I just don’t understand, it’s almost like we have a sickness of trying to hurt ourselves. We need to start thinking about, how do we move forward.”

Deborah Macmillan, of Hightstown, said she has nearly 30 years of experience doing surveys and had concerns about the local GOP candidates’ methods. To be counted, she noted, people had to not hang up when they heard the beginning of the survey, which could bias results, as could the fact that only registered voters were called. The second question, she said, was too complicated for a yes/no question.

Borough resident Phyllis Deal said she was “uncomfortable” with the survey. “I don’t think it’s appropriate,” she said, noting she didn’t realize until she had answered the survey questions that Archer and Gilmartin were responsible for it.

Responding to some of the comments, Gilmartin, who is an incumbent running for reelection, said she and Archer had followed proper form with the survey.

“This issue came to us,” she said. “It’s not a surprise or a secret, and we did the poll to engage in a full level of transparency. Our name was on the poll, it was stated before the questions were asked it was a public opinion poll. I resent the fact that it was being looked at as un-transparent or dishonest.

“We have not recommended the dissolution or the changing of this resolution at this point,” she added. “It has been said the issue is dead, but it’s not dead.”

At the objections of one of her opponents, Democratic council candidate Rob Thibault, Gilmartin stopped talking about the issue. At the end of the meeting, she apologized, saying, “If I did cross any lines regarding electioneering it is my sincere apology, and I will go out of my way not to do so. Had the mayor not opened council comments—I had no intention of making any comment tonight.”

Democrat Councilwoman Isabel McGinty noted that guidelines from the state attorney general (see PDF in the gallery on this article) dictate how immigration authorities interact with law enforcement agencies. “There’s no subjectivity on the part of Hightstown,” she said. “This is a non-issue, and it’s not even something that we need to discuss.”

“I do respect everyone who lives in Hightstown—everyone—and I think we all should respect everyone in the community,” Democrat Mayor Steve Kirson said. “And I do appreciate the comments by all the speakers tonight. I think they represented our community very nicely.”

For a follow-up story on the results of the poll, click "Keep me updated!" below, or check Patch in the coming days.

This article was updated Wednesday at 11:10 a.m. to clarify that not all speakers were Hightstown residents.