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David J. Bier is the Director of Immigration Studies and occupies The Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy. He is an expert on legal immigration, border security, and interior enforcement. |
Originally published on Cato.org, republished under Creative Commons agreement.
On December 4, the Department of Justice (DOJ) disseminated a memorandum to all federal prosecutors creating a strategy for arresting and charging individuals supposedly aligned with “Antifa.” The memo requires DOJ to investigate and identify the “most serious, most readily provable” crimes committed by potential targets, including those with “extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders.”
Specifically, the document defines domestic terrorism broadly to include “doxing” and “impeding” immigration and other law enforcement. Doxing is not specifically defined, but the memo references calls to require Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to give their names and operate unmasked. Individuals who donate to organizations that “impede” or “dox” will be investigated and deemed to have supported “domestic terrorism.”
Therefore, it is crucial to understand that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) consider people who follow DHS and ICE agents to observe, record, or protest their operations as engaging in “impeding.” DHS has a systematic policy of threatening people who follow ICE or DHS agents to record their activities with detentions, arrests, and violence, and agents have already chased, detained, arrested, charged, struck, and shot at people who follow them.
The purpose of this post is to establish that these incidents are not isolated overreach by individual agents, but rather, an official, nationwide policy of intimidating and threatening people who attempt to observe and record DHS operations. This matters legally because courts are more likely to enjoin an official policy rather than impose some new requirements to stop sporadic, uncoordinated actions by individual agents.
The Right to Follow, Record, Report, and Protest
Since early September 2025, the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project has been pushing back against a new wave of "peace and good order" and "parental responsibility" ordinances in three Camden County towns: Barrington, Runnemede, and Haddonfield.
All three municipalities are confronting similar issues—homelessness, aggressive panhandling, and groups of youth roaming business districts and residential neighborhoods. But in each case, local officials have reached for broad new code provisions that risk violating people's rights and exposing taxpayers to liability if the proposals are ever enforced.
Recently a branch of the National Archives released a mostly unredacted version of Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s military records to an ally of Sherrill’s duopoly rival Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Jack Ciattarelli. Among these records were Sherrill’s personal files, which mentioned how Sherrill was denied the ability to walk for her Naval Academy graduation because she did not disclose the names of those 100 midshipmen who were implicated in a cheating scandal. Rep. Sherrill was herself never accused of cheating and, by all accounts, served honorably during her time in the service. This is safeguarded information that is protected by the 1974 Privacy Act. Since the leak, these documents are being weaponized against her and her campaign.
We of the New Jersey Libertarian Party denounce dirty politics in all its forms. Regardless of the target or the intention, it is wrong to weaponize personal data. All individuals have a right to privacy, whether we agree with them or not. While it is true that candidates and public officials have an obligation to be transparent with the people they represent, the idea that a person’s private data can be released without any oversight is wrong. Further, we support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ call for an investigation. We hope that the guilty party(s) are found and that Rep. Sherrill is able to seek the justice she deserves.
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder many have called for limits to free speech. Some of this is motivated by a worry that various media platforms might be a device for radical indoctrination, while others are deeply troubled by some people’s reaction to Mr. Kirk’s passing. Regardless of the intention behind these calls for censorship, an individual’s First Amendment rights must be defended, absolutely.
We of the New Jersey Libertarian Party vehemently reject all attempts to cancel, deplatform, restrict access to, or otherwise prevent individuals from expressing their views. Freedom of Speech, a cornerstone of American society, should not be limited, suspended or infringed upon by the government. The First Amendment was not created to merely protect a person’s right to express positive or acceptable views, but was intended to safeguard individuals from being targeted by the government if and when their ideas were unpopular. No individual should have to fear for their health or well-being for speaking their mind in public, or on their own personal media accounts. We may adamantly reject the content of their speech, and all have the right to distance themselves from, disagree with or even ridicule those who espouse ideas that they find abhorrent, but one's own personal ideologies, morality or politics is insufficient for disempowering others.
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Om Bhaskar is a junior attending South Brunswick High School. He is a Debate Captain for his school's Debate Club, Secretary for Model UN, the Vice President for the History Club, and an Editor for the school newspaper. |
By Om Bhaskar
The state has messed a lot of things up. From overcharging hardworking New Jerseyans through horrifyingly high taxes to restricting their freedom to defend themselves with firearms, government-run institutions have proven themselves again and again to be either incompetent, dangerous, or both. Public high schools are no different.
In freshman year, I took a Government class in my high school, South Brunswick High School. The institution is highly ranked, being ranked #60 out of 406 high schools in New Jersey by U.S. News.
Now, it is important to note that most civically engaged high school students in my area are either progressive Democrats or socially conservative Republicans (the former is far more common than the latter). You would be hard-pressed to find a future history, political science, or pre-law major that even knows much about the Libertarian Party, let alone other third parties. Now, from my experiences in public school, there could be a reason for why this is. Simply put, schools seem to subtly push students into believing we only have two choices for governance.
September 5, 2025
Hon. Dave Siedell, Mayor and members of the
Haddonfield Board of Commissioners
242 Kings Highway East
Haddonfield, NJ 08033 (via email)
Dear Mayor Siedell and Commissioners:
I write regarding Ordinance 2025-11, scheduled for final adoption on September 29. Having reviewed the ordinance alongside existing Borough Code Chapter 158 and New Jersey case law, I believe the proposal repeats provisions long preempted by state law and, if enacted, would invite both litigation risk and constitutional challenge without meaningfully addressing homelessness.
New Jersey is seeing a disturbing rise in eminent domain abuse and government overreach against private property owners.
In Cranbury, officials are trying to seize a 175-year-old, 21-acre family farm. Their justification is to satisfy NJ affordable housing mandates. The township has already begun condemnation proceedings to take 12 acres for the purpose of building 130 apartments—robbing a family of land they’ve stewarded for generations.
Date: Sunday September 14th 2025, 3:30-5:00 PM
Location: Zoom online meeting, in person option at Jay Edgar's house, 8 Arneytown Hornerstown Road, Cream Ridge NJ
Agenda and zoom link to be published soon!
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: