A month after Donald Trump’s reelection and the red wave that swept down-ballot elections in New Jersey and across the United States, public policy lecturer Lynda Dodd joined Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey, for a community presentation at the Princeton Public Library on Dec. 15. They discussed New Jersey’s potential to build “firewalls of freedom” — safeguards based on actions that governors, attorney generals, and statewide officials can take locally to protect communities made vulnerable by potential Trump policies.
Indivisible Princeton, an organization formed by Ezra Levin GS ’13 in 2017 in response to Trump’s first election, hosted the event as its ”relaunch meeting.” The group is a local chapter of a national group. Dodd wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian that several Princeton professors were involved in the original group as well as the recent relaunch, although the organization is not affiliated with the University.
In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Sinha expressed that universities must take responsibility to protect their communities from crackdowns by the incoming Trump administration.
“Universities have to be bold. Universities like Princeton, which are well-resourced and have a lot of power in our state, need to push back,” he said.
Throughout the talk, Sinha emphasized the role of nonprofit, religious, and educational institutions in shaping policy and protecting vulnerable communities.
“There are a number of undocumented students in New Jersey,” Sinha told the ‘Prince.’ “We need to make sure we are giving them the environment they need.” He said universities should work on “issuing policies and otherwise informally protecting students … consistent with keeping them safe.”
Princeton does not publicly disclose how many undocumented students are enrolled, although its financial aid is blind to immigration status. Nationally, some colleges have advised international students not to leave the country over winter break due to fears about potential changes to visa status when Trump takes office.
Sinha told the ‘Prince’ that “I know that Princeton and other schools have taken bold stances in the past” and urged similar action going into a second Trump presidency. In 2019, Eisgruber joined Microsoft and Maria Sanchez ’18 in a Supreme Court case suing the Trump administration for its threats to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Recently, Eisgruber has committed to institutional restraint over institutional neutrality, which is favored by a number of peer universities. This means that instead of refraining from statements on all political and moral issues, Princeton selectively decides to issue them on rare occasions. For example, Eisgruber made statements about the war in Ukraine and the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. He has not made any such public statements on protecting undocumented students or other potential repercussions from Trump administration policies.
Sinha also raised concerns about protecting University diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and rights to free speech and association during the event.
“Things like DEI initiatives, protecting students and making sure the right to protest is robust, and making sure the right to convene on campus is not impeded” are all areas of interest for groups like the ACLU, he told the ‘Prince.’
“We want to make sure that schools are doing whatever they can to push back against the narrative that institutions of higher education are political football,” he added. Both DEI and protest regulations have been contentious subjects on Princeton’s campus in recent years and have headlined the agenda of the incoming administration. Trump has threatened deporting student protestors and defunding schools with DEI programs.
Dodd also discussed how the election results may impact the content of her courses going forward. Her Spring 2025 class, “Woman, Law, and Public Policy,” will focus more on laws like the Comstock Act, an 1873 bill that banned the mailing of obscene materials and has been key to political debate around abortion.
Dodd chose not to comment on whether there have been larger changes in the School of Public and International Affairs following the election, or on any hopes or expectations from the University administration in the coming months, but noted, “I know I feel better that I am doing something post-election that connects me to my community and to the organizations in our state who are going to need more support and help.”
She mentioned that, in its first run in 2017, Indivisible Princeton received most of its attention from middle-aged women who were previously unengaged in local politics. She expressed an imperative for student involvement, but that she also thinks her “generation needs to do more to protect Gen Z. For too long, the refrain has been ‘the kids will save us.’ As a mom and teacher, I’ve always resisted that way of thinking. We should all do as much as we can to protect and support the next generation.”
Sinha, meanwhile, called on student action, and told the ‘Prince’ that “Every student at Princeton is a New Jersey resident. They should be calling their representatives and making their voices heard on issues they care about.”
Some Princeton students have been active in canvassing and engaging around the election, while some have criticized the student body for political apathy. Sinha acknowledged that “life is busy, and also, it’s been exhausting,” but added, “I think it’s really important that students get active. Civic engagement is a value that should be instilled while students are in school.”
He explained that such student action may even hold more weight now, if demands for local action are heeded. Pointing to the potential of New Jersey’s administration and government willingness to back undocumented protections and student action, Sinha noted that there are some policies already in place and currently proposed in state government that can defend against threatening Trump policies.
He urged expanding the already existent budget line for immigration defense counsel and passage of the Immigrant Trust Act that would codify an already existing directive by the state Attorney General preventing law enforcement from asking about immigration status. Audience members were quick to connect these points to local impacts, lamenting a recent ICE raid in which one Princeton man was arrested and remains in ICE custody.
“We want to make sure that we’re not complicit with the cruelty of the next administration,” Sinha said regarding Trump’s plans to deploy the military for mass deportations. “There’s a lot to be proud of in our state as well, but there’s a lot that we can do in our state to make sure that we are that firewall for freedom, that we are doing everything we can to protect against the worst instincts of the Trump administration.”
“This is the second time that we’re facing the Trump administration,” Sinha told the ‘Prince.’ “We know that things are going to be hard. It’s super important that we don’t lose hope that justice will prevail.”
Abby Leibowitz is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince’ from Silver Spring, Md.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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