What we have here is not quite a Mexican standoff, but it may be over an actual Mexican. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D-Whaddeya Think?) is itching for a confrontation with the Trump administration, and he may just get what he’s wishing for. Murphy has just strongly hinted that he is harboring an illegal migrant in his home and dared immigration officials to come try to apprehend her.
Maybe they will and maybe they won’t, and given the fact that Murphy is a leftist, this illegal immigrant who is hiding out in his house may not even be real at all. Nevertheless, it’s unusual in the extreme to see a leading American official boast about breaking the law, and pretend that he is righteous to do so.
MUST WATCH: New Jersey’s Democrat Governor Phil Murphy seems to admit to harboring an illegal alien in his home:
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) February 3, 2025
“We said, you know what, let’s have her live at our house above our garage, and good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.” pic.twitter.com/mMfP0BelUF
Would Murphy hide a thief or a murderer in his home? Leftist hackles are certain to be raised at the comparison, but the point is that if he really is sheltering an illegal migrant, that person is breaking the law no less than a thief or murderer is doing so. It is a disquieting sign of how deep and unbridgeable the political divide has become in America today that not only can Murphy boast about doing this, but that a significant number of Americans will applaud him and even consider him some kind of hero for trying to throw a roadblock into Trump’s plan to deport illegal migrants.
Fox News reported Monday that Murphy “made the admission during an interview this past weekend with Blue Wave New Jersey, a progressive grassroots organization.” In this context, “progressive” means about as far to the left as it is possible to go, and in favor of massive government control over aspects of people’s lives that few societies throughout history have considered to be acceptable.
Murphy proudly proclaimed that his wife "Tammy and I were talking about – I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to. And we said, you know what? Let's have her live at our house above our garage." Great idea! But why so chintzy, Murph? There are millions of illegal migrants in America today, and seeing as how you and Tammy aren’t living in Drumthwacket, the sumptuous mansion that is the official residence of governors of New Jersey, why don’t you open it up to a few gangs of Afghans and Venezuelans? What could possibly go wrong, amirite?
Doing all he could to position himself as the fearless warrior for freedom confronting the Bad Orange Man, Murphy then declared: "And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her." Apart from Murphy’s posturing, however, ICE is not a bunch of jackbooted National Socialists, and the illegal migrant in his house is not Anne Frank. What exactly does Murphy intend to do if immigration officials really do visit his home in Middletown and attempt to apprehend the lawbreaker?
It’s not a rhetorical question. Is he going to tell them off? Is he going to call out the New Jersey National Guard to fight them and risk touching off a new civil war? Or is he simply banking on the likelihood that ICE isn’t going to risk a political firestorm by showing up at the home of a sitting governor, however asinine and self-important that governor may be?
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Abraham Lincoln, paraphrasing the Bible (Matthew 12:25), said it back in 1858: “A house divided against itself cannot stand." Old Abe is fortunate not to be living in the age when smug, self-righteous preening of the Phil Murphy type is common, but the rail splitter’s point still holds true today. The nation cannot long endure with half the people thinking that Trump is performing a valuable, long-delayed, and much-needed service by closing the door to illegal migrants and making it clear that more are not welcome and the other half thinking (or claiming to think) that he is a dangerous, reckless dictator-in-the-making who is cruelly emptying the nation of its fruit-pickers, lawn cutters, and landscapers.
This is by no means to say that the division will necessarily get worse. The wisdom of Trump’s action could be so obvious before too long that even the likes of Phil Murphy will have to acknowledge it. Until then, however, it will be interesting to see if he runs afoul of the law for defying ICE. After all, no one is above the law, right, Commies?
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