U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., local officials and mayors met at a roundtable on Monday in opposition to President Trump's recent executive orders.
PERTH AMBOY -- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th Dist.) told a packed room of local officials and leaders on Monday that there are legal ways to defy President Trump's executive orders on immigration.
"A lot of it is voluntary," Pallone said. "If (municipalities) want to resist, they have that option."
Pallone made those comments at the Alexander F. Jankowski Community Center when he spoke alongside a roughly 20-member panel made up of mayors, first-generation immigrants, and religious and community leaders.
The forum was to discuss the many concerns communities are feeling from Trump's recent executive actions. Over the weekend, Trump enacted another order that blocked immigration from seven mostly Muslim countries.
Several people spoke about their apprehensions about the immigration ban.
Miriam Zamudio-Coria, a Perth Amboy resident and an immigrant brought to the U.S. as a child, was part of the panel and voiced some of those concerns.
"Our worries are our parents," said Zamudio-Coria, who is a recipient of President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) -- which allows immigrants brought to the U.S. as children temporary protection from deportation.
"Will our parents be deported?" she added. "Will I go home and find my parents?"
Pallone said one of Trump's orders that local officials can choose to ignore is his expansion of a program deputizing local, county or state police officers to enforce federal immigration laws.
"It's voluntary," he said.
Highland Park Mayor Gayle Brill Mittler and Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, who were both on the panel, said they have instructed their police departments not to act as federal immigration officials because they believe it would cause mistrust among their immigrant communities.
Another program Pallone said is voluntary is sharing digital fingerprints from those processed in jail with federal authorities who may use that information to deport immigrants -- even those found not guilty of a crime.
"I'm not going to tell you to resist everything," he said. However, he said that though federal immigration law enforcement may seek compliance, towns can ignore such measures.
Also on the panel was Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, who said legislators in Trenton needed to enact more robust resistance against Trump's measures -- and should take the step of declaring New Jersey a so-called "sanctuary state." Throughout the state and country, municipalities have declared themselves "sanctuary cities," vowing to protect noncriminal, unauthorized immigrants from deportation.
"We need our elected officials to toughen up and protect our immigrants," said Kaper-Dale, a Green Party gubernatorial candidate who has been at the forefront of resettling refugees who have come to New Jersey.
However, Pallone and other officials believe the term is too loosely defined, and some towns in the county say it lacks substance and merely serves as a symbolic measure.
Mittler, for example, agreed the term lacks substance, and that her town wants to protect its immigrant communities through actions.
Diaz also said that passing a resolution declaring sanctuary status was merely symbolic.
Though Trump said he would withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities, both mayors maintained that their decision to not declare sanctuary status was not out fear of repercussions.
"We're not afraid of declaring," Mittler said. "It's about doing things -- the actions. Saying you're a sanctuary city is meaningless."
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.