Remember Roxbury, that medium sized town in the Highlands, that overwhelmingly voted Republican but pulled a NIMBY when the owner of a local warehouse sold it to ICE? Roxbury, where the median income is over $130K, had a fit when it learned that the warehouse owner had sold it to ICE. Who would have thought that the Republican town of Roxbury would have objected so much to the plans they voted for?
The state joined the town in a lawsuit to block it use as a detention center to hold 1500 over environmental reasons. The parties reached an agreement yesterday that would provide “minimal” construction, whatever that means, and security fencing.
A major environmental problem is that the area does not have the capacity to handle sewerage, among other environmental issues. The Highlands is the watershed for over 6 million people. A 2004 report warned of overdevelopment which could cost the state $50 billion in infrastructure improvements. The environmental issues are real but one suspects Roxbury has other reasons as well. Anti-immigrant politics comes home.
Prayer for the Day
Ah, O God, we so often forget our duty to the earth,
For we continue to desecrate the land you have given us;
As its destruction is claimed in the name of national security,
Lawyers battle it out in courts of law while nature waits.
Be with us, O Lord, as we struggle to protect your gifts,
The precious clean water we so need.
In the name of the One who accompanies us,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
Highlands water runs New Jersey’s economic engine. The region provides water for our three largest economic sectors: pharmaceuticals, food processing, and tourism. Highlands water makes everything from Tylenol to M&M’s, from Goya beans to Budweiser
Jeff Tittel, in The New Jersey Vindicator (4/26/2026)
As these examples and many others illustrate, NEPA and the ICA are not merely empty procedures or administrative red tape—they affirmatively produce better outcomes. By contrast, DHS’s comprehensive failure to abide by NEPA and the ICA threatens significant and irreversible environmental damage and deprives the affected public, state and local authorities, and even DHS itself of vital information that can improve the agency’s decisionmaking
From Amicus brief filed by NJ Highlands Coalition, NJ Conservation Foundation,
Hackensack Riverkeeper, NJ League of Conservation Voters, and six others
Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly, who despise the gain of oppression,
Who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
Who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
They will live on the heights; their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
Their food will be supplied, their water assured.
Isaiah 33: 15-16