The throughline that activists are calling for is a moratorium, but the four-point plan only proves to them that their needs aren’t being heard. “We asked for a moratorium, and [Governor Sherrill]’s just recycling things that were already in the process in the State House anyway,” said Casey Palmer, South Jersey Progressive Democrats member who has been protesting a data center local to her in New Jersey’s Monroe Township. At one Monroe Township Council meeting, she recalled, the data centers were not even on the agenda, “but people still went and spoke anyway because they see through the lines.”

Reports from the field by Ryan Novosielski:

5.29.26

A week ago, Delaney Hall became ground zero for grassroots resistance in support of a hunger and labor strike inside the facility. Detainees launched the strike to demand an end to the egregious and inhumane conditions inside the facility. The crowds have grown, and the tension has heightened over the last couple of days. It’s Friday, and protesters are making the same calls to the wider community to join them on the ground in support of the detainees' calls to end their detention.

Newark just held another no‑contest election in which 11.89% of registered voters decided who governs a city of more than 320,000 people. 

This is not an anomaly, but the operating condition of a democracy that has learned how to function without its citizens.

They founded RCSG in 2017, and now, nearly a decade later, they’ve built a space where returning citizens can transition back into their communities. RCSG is both a resource-sharing organization and a union that advocates for humane conditions and rights for people who are incarcerated, having successfully advocated for several new laws under former Governor Phil Murphy, including restoring voting rights to people on probation and parole and allowing former felons to serve on juries.

In July 2025, multiple federal agencies revoked longstanding regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, eliminating all requirements to consider environmental justice and cumulative impacts during federal environmental reviews. With those protections weakened, and with the state maintaining that municipalities play no formal role in environmental justice compliance, the burden falls on volunteer organizers and underfunded community groups—the same organizations that have just lost their federal grants. 

The scale of the financial retreat is staggering. In March 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency canceled more than 400 grants totaling $1.7 billion—funding earmarked for air and water quality improvements in disadvantaged communities. By October, the Department of Energy terminated $7.56 billion in awards to 223 clean energy projects across 16 states that voted Democratic in 2024; New Jersey and Delaware alone stood to lose approximately $43.5 million. 

So what can we do? We must apply the lessons of Minnesota citizen ICE patrols to our voting infrastructure. We need regular citizens monitoring for ICE presence outside polling sites. Costumes, whistles, brass bands, the whole Minnesota treatment. Those neighbors can post the actual situation outside their polling site on their local social media and text chains. Countering disinformation and threats with real information, alerting people so they can stay safe if ICE actually shows up somewhere, and allowing voting to continue uninterrupted at 99.9% of voting locations that ICE doesn’t have the resources to disrupt.

Mayor Ras Baraka delivered his 12th State of the City address on Tuesday night, centering his message on Newark’s resilience and growth in the face of adversity. Baraka chose to focus on key issues like housing, education and public safety, while highlighting the city’s progress and strength. 

A quiet Sunday unfolds in a meditation on home, empathy, and mutual aid. Through time with family and a prayer service at Delaney Hall, Halashon Sianipar and his kids realize community in simple acts of care.