Analysis of Rep. Tom Kean Jr.'s misleading messages
March 21: Lawsuit raises issues Kean ignored about Roxbury ICE prison
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New Jersey and Roxbury officials filed suit in federal court on March 20 to block plans by ICE to convert a warehouse in the township into a 1,500-bed immigrant detention facility.
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The lawsuit raises issues that the area's congressman, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ7), failed to pursue when the town's leaders sought his help to stop the plan.
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Why didn't the Trump Administration conduct the bare minimum environmental assessments required under the National Environmental Policy Act? Since Congressman Kean began his public service career at the Environmental Protection Agency, he should know that these environmental assessments are required - and necessary to prevent damage.
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When the sale of the warehouse was publicly confirmed, Roxbury officials and local residents raised many concerns, including the detention facility’s environmental impact.
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As reported by New Jersey Monitor, in announcing the lawsuit, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said the ICE facility "would create waste 15 times the site’s approved waste-water capacity, which she said could create permanent damage and sewage overflow into nearby waterways, including Lake Hopatcong. She also noted that the area is part of the Highlands region, which provides drinking water for 70% of the state’s residents.”
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The lawsuit also alleges that the Trump Administration failed to consult with local officials before the sale and failed to account for their viewpoints - in violation of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act.
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This whole situation - ICE's purchase of the warehouse, the potential harm to Roxbury and its surroundings, and the federal lawsuit - could have been avoided if Congressman Kean simply did his job and pressed the Administration for answers that the law requires and that his constituents demand.
March 15: Kean Is Silent on Suspension of Russian Oil Embargo
In his latest newsletter to his NJ7 constituents, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. notes that he’s a cosponsor of House Resolution 564, which condemns the Russian Federation for abducting more than 19,000 Ukrainian children since its unlawful invasion of Ukraine. The resolution calls for Russia to safely return these children before any peace agreement is finalized.
Congressman Kean is to be commended for supporting the measure (he’s one of 32 cosponsors). Yet he has nothing to say about the most recent action by President Trump that works to Russia’s benefit in its war against Ukraine.
After Trump’s war on Iran caused oil prices to soar, the president lifted U.S. sanctions on Russian oil currently in tankers, allowing it to be shipped and sold around the world. This “temporary” lifting of sanctions will provide Ukraine’s enemy with an estimated $10 billion in extra revenue.
How will that help Ukraine defend itself against continued Russian aggression? Of course, it will not. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said Trump’s decision “did nothing for peace.”
Kean’s silence on this is deafening – particularly as he is a cosponsor of H.R. 7904, the No Aid For Russia Energy Act. This bill is designed “to prohibit United States persons from providing petroleum equipment or services in the energy sector of the Russian Federation.” It expressly directs the President to enforce compliance through the imposition of economic sanctions. The bill was introduced in January and has been sitting in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Kean is a member, and the Judiciary Committees since then.
If Kean is indeed a supporter of Ukraine’s freedom from Russian aggression, he has a duty to ask the president why he just gave Russia a big boost in oil revenue. This comes as U.S. aid to Ukraine has virtually dried up since Trump took office, replaced by aid from European nations.
Kean and his colleagues in Congress have it in their power to reimpose the sanctions on Russian oil, and to limit the president’s authority over economic sanctions, by amending the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. (Yes, that’s the same law that Trump was using to impose tariffs until the Supreme Court ruled he was exceeding his authority.)
How many more Ukrainian soldiers must die, how many Ukrainian civilians must be displaced, and how many Ukrainian children must be abducted before Congressman Kean starts asking our president some tough questions?
We look forward to Kean’s next newsletter to learn if he has dared to ask, and what answers he’s received.
March 8, 2026: Kean says demands for ICE reforms are “political games”
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In his latest newsletter to constituents in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. proudly proclaims that he voted in favor of his party’s bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. He claims that "Washington Democrats have allowed political games to shut down this critical agency, jeopardizing the safety of our communities."
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Kean did not, of course, explain what he meant by “political games.” In reality, Democrats in Congress simply are insisting on common-sense measures to promote accountability and professionalism within ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which is part of DHS. Those measures include requirements that ICE officers:
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Not wear masks,
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Wear body cameras, and
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Display visible identification of their name and agency.
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Democrats also have conditioned funding upon ICE officers complying with the same standards that other police agencies already follow in New Jersey and throughout our country, regarding the use of force and the need to obtain judicial warrants before forcibly entering a home.
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As Kean is a former member of the New Jersey Senate Judiciary committee, one would expect him to recognize these measures are “best practices” within the law enforcement community. They promote accountability and compliance with Constitutional limitations upon the use of force and the seizure of persons and property, particularly within the home.
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Kean, however, is insisting on handing DHS a blank check. And to justify his vote to fully fund DHS, the Republican congressman attempts to shift our focus away from ICE to other DHS agencies. He writes that the "men and women of DHS, including our Coast Guard members, TSA agents, and FEMA employees, deserve to be paid for the critical work they do protecting this nation.” [Emphasis Kean's]
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The fatal flaw in this argument is that those opposing unconditional ICE funding have proposed to sever it from appropriations for the other DHA agencies that Kean mentions. Kean and his Republican colleagues rejected proposals to separately fund the Coast Guard, TSA, and FEMA. They have insisted on “all or nothing” votes, tying together funding for ICE and those other agencies. And Kean ignores the fact that he supported or acquiesced to the Trump Administration’s previous funding cuts to TSA and FEMA.
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Of course, this is the same congressman who has no objection to ICE turning a Roxbury warehouse into a detention center for some 1,500 immigrants. As usual, Kean simply goes along with whatever his Trump Party says and does, regardless of the effect on his constituents.
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February 22, 2026: Kean brags about pennies on our dollars
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Rep. Tom Kean Jr. repeatedly brags about how his office secures federal grants for projects in his 7th Congressional District, and helps constituents having trouble getting federal benefits. In his latest newsletter, he says that since he joined Congress in 2023, his casework team’s efforts have resulted in “more than $60 million returned to families, seniors, veterans, and small businesses.” He says his staff cuts through bureaucratic red tape at federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration.
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That’s all well and good – and part of the job for any member of Congress.
But let’s look at the bigger picture. That $60 million is a tiny fraction of the tax money that residents in Kean’s NJ07 district send to Washington in taxes. An analysis of IRS data by USA Facts found revenue collected by the federal government from New Jersey in 2024 averaged out to $19,285 per person. Multiplied by the NJ07 population of 760,058, that comes to roughly $14.5 BILLION paid by Kean’s constituents to the U.S. Treasury.
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And by the way, New Jersey sends far more to the federal government in taxes than it gets back in benefits and other funding. There is a $68 billion dollar gap between what Garden State residents pay the federal government and what they get back. We’re one of 33 such “donor states,” but only three states have a larger gap. New Jersey gets about 63 cents from the feds for every dollar it sends Washington, according to the USA Facts report. (A Rutgers study put it at 75 cents on the dollar based on 2019 data, so the gap has grown. )
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Most importantly, Congressman Kean’s vote for President Trump’s budget bills makes him responsible for dramatically decreasing funding for the very agencies – IRS, VA and SSA – from which his casework team seeks to “return” funds to constituents. That will certainly not help reduce red tape and delays!
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Last year, the VA lost 40,000 employes, 88 percent of them in health care.
Focusing on these funding reductions and DOGE cuts, the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee sounded an alarm to the American public “that the Trump Administration is literally destroying the Veteran’s Administration.” Similarly, DOGE recommended cutting 7,000 workers from the SSA. Together, cuts by DOGE and by Congress (with Kean’s support) have seriously compromised the SSA’s ability to service all Americans, including Kean’s constituents.
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Then there are the budget cuts to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, SNAP benefits – and the failure to renew ACA subsidies, causing health insurance premiums to jump for some 45,000 NJ07 residents – all thanks to Kean’s votes in Congress.
So the next time Kean brags about helping a constituent cut through a bureaucratic snag to get benefits due – remember that he has also helped take benefits away from all of us!
February 21, 2026: Judge calls out false narrative Kean pushes
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We previously took Rep. Tom Kean Jr. to task for pushing the Trump regime's narrative that mass deportation of noncitizens promotes the safety of citizens - and that roving bands of ICE and other federal agents are going after dangerous criminals.
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In a remarkably outspoken opinion this week, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes in California also called out this false narrative - and went a lot further.
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The case involved the arrest of a noncitizen by masked ICE agents (1) without an arrest warrant issued by a federal court judge and (2) in violation of an injunction issued by Judge Sykes.
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The court reviewed a series of DHS press releases, similar to the one referenced in Kean's Feb. 15 newsletter, boasting of capturing dangerous criminals. Judge Sykes concluded that the releases “repeat the rhetoric suggesting that ICE operations are limited to the 'worst of the worst': criminal noncitizens." - but stated that this is "an inaccurate description of most of the people affected by DHS and ICE's operations."
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Also “swept into the nationwide and reckless violations of law by the executive branch” are citizens and noncitizens who have not even been accused of committing a crime.
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The court identified the Administration’s ongoing “terror” upon noncitizens to include:
(1) the arrest of a 5 year-old boy without an arrest warrant issued by a federal court judge,
(2) the continued arrests without an arrest warrant issued by a federal court judge,
(3) those warrantless arrests continuing in violation of a stay issued by Judge Sykes,
(4) the government's continued justification of these arrests based on its interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act which has been expressly rejected by virtually every federal court that addressed the issue, including Judge Sykes, and
(5) the continued use of masks by ICE agents, concealing their identity and impeding their accountability.
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The court further observed that this Administration has “extended its violence upon its own citizens, killing two American citizens - Renee Good and Alex Pretti...”
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The language of this decision is truly remarkable, insofar as it broadly condemns the Administration’s lawlessness. Usually, courts limit their decisions to the facts of the discrete case before them. The tenor of the opinion may reflect the rising frustration that federal judges have over the Executive Branch’s apparent disregard of judicial orders.
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Apparently, our Congressman either doesn't share that frustration - or doesn't have the courage to speak out against it. Either way, it's one more reason New Jersey's 7th Congressional District needs to replace him in November.
February 16, 2026: Kean touts arrests, ignores abuses by DHS
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Congressman Tom Kean Junior’s Feb. 15 newsletter to constituents includes a set of five mug shots of “dangerous criminals who had been residing in communities across New Jersey’s Seventh Congressional District,” but have, he says, been arrested “thanks to the work of Department of Homeland Security.”
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Kean’s message doesn’t explain when or how the five were arrested. By Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs & Border Patrol (CBP), or other DHS agents sent into NJ communities? Or by New Jersey authorities, who later turned them over for deportation? In recent months or further in the past? Were they convicted of crimes or only accused? (One of them, according to the DHS website, was arrested in Minnesota, not New Jersey.)
Without more details, it’s impossible to know whether unleashing ICE/CBP in New Jersey communities actually resulted in these apprehensions and made “our neighborhoods safer,” as Kean puts it.
But what we do know is that the roving bands of masked ICE/CBP agents operating in American cities with little regard for Constitutional rights or law-enforcement procedures have arrested more law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying residents – and families with children – than dangerous criminals. They also have unlawfully arrested American citizens – and shot two dead in Minnesota for observing their actions. They are holding people in prison camps, in deplorable conditions, blocking their access to attorneys, and refusing to allow members of Congress to inspect the facilities as the law requires. And they are working to rapidly expand their network of detention centers – including at a warehouse in Roxbury, N.J., in Kean’s congressional district, despite local officials’ opposition.
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DHS’s own internal records, uncovered by CBS News, show that less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE during Trump's first year back in office faced charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses. Some 40% had no criminal charges at all – not even misdemeanors. And every day brings new stories of lawful immigrants and citizens swept up in ICE/CBP dragnets and detained for hours or days before being released.
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In his newsletter, Kean proclaims that “public safety must always come first.” Indeed, deporting immigrants who are convicted of felonies is lawful and promotes public safety. But Kean’s message advances an oft-repeated false narrative that erroneously links immigrant status with criminality.
After review of 19 relevant research studies, the American Immigration Counsel concluded that “research has consistently shown that undocumented immigrants are far less likely to be arrested for felony and violent offenses, including homicide, than are US-born residents.” Included in that review were studies performed by the Cato Institute, a think tank cofounded by Charles Koch, whose PAC contributed $5,000 to Kean’s 2020 campaign.
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Congressman Kean, in the same Feb. 15 newsletter and a press release, touts his sponsorship of the “Countering Wrongful Detention Act of 2025,” designed to protect American citizens from unlawful detention abroad. Yet he voted for Republican budget bills that have given ICE a massive budget – $37.5 billion a year – that is larger than those of most nations’ militaries. The resulting surge of hiring has staffed the agency with officers who show little understanding or respect for civil rights and legal process. And they have been sent into our cities to round up non-white people who might (or might not) be subject to deportation. It’s capture first, ask questions later.
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When persons lawfully residing in this country have been illegally arrested and detained, the government has in multiple cases refused to comply with judicial orders for their release. This has resulted in contempt proceedings against administration officials, including ICE director Todd Lyons. In one ruling, the court observed that “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
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Despite his repeated insistence that the “rule of law” must be maintained, Tom Kean Junior has remained conspicuously silent in the face of consistent and blatant disregard of the “rule of law” by the same ICE agents he so enthusiastically voted to fund with our tax dollars.
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February 13, 2026: Kean Silent as Trump Trashes Environment
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Rep Tom Kean Jr. proclaims on his website: “I am proud to have spent my public life fighting to protect our environment so that it can be enjoyed hy our children and our grandchildren.” And he points out that he began his public life at the Environmental Protection Agency in 1991.
But as our elected representitive, his voting record and his deafening silence on key issues show that he has turned his back on protecting our environment.
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Since his election to the House of Representatives in 2022, Kean’s assaults upon the environment include;
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his 2023 vote in favor of HR 1 (118) to roll back former President Biden’s climate change initiative.
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his 2025 vote in favor of slashing more than 50% of the EPA’s budget.
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and now, his silence as Trump totally eliminates the federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.
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The threat to our environment posed by greenhouse gas emissions was recognized In 2011 by the Congressman's father, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who in 2011 called upon informed citizens to “confront those who don’t believe in the science of it for the ignorant people that they are.”
Apparently, Tom Junior wasn’t listening.​​​​​​​​​​
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Jan. 23, 2026: Kean Ignores ICE-CBP Abuses
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Bragging about his vote this week for the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. said it includes "investments into border security." Apparently that's what he calls the money for ICE and CBP to
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continue terrorizing American communities, grabbing immigrants (documented or not) off streets, out of their homes and from the hallways of courthouses where they are trying to follow immigration law;
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build concentration camps and hold detainees in inhumane conditions before deporting them;
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attack and even kill Americans who protest their brutal tactics.
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In recent months, ICE has deported a four-year-old American with Stage 4 kidney cancer; violently dragged a 17-year-old citizen away from his workplace while he pleaded “I’m a U.S. citizen”; put a 16-year-old American boy in a prohibited chokehold while he cried “I was going to school!”; grabbed a 5-year-old and tried to use him to lure his family from its home; broke down doors to enter homes without warrants; indiscriminately smashed the windows of vehicles driven by innocent Americans; unlawfully detained or arrested hundreds of U.S. citizens; targeted Americans solely on the basis of race; violently attacked journalists and clergy; and killed a U.S. citizen in front of her spouse.
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What is Congressman Tom Kean Junior's position on these acts of violence perpetrated by the United States on its own citizens?
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Silence.
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What does he have to say about ICE and CBP ignoring due process and the civil rights of immigrants and citizens alike?
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Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
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Kean’s office has even refused to comment on a proposed ICE facility in his own district. His website describes his position on immigration like so: “We are a nation of laws and a top priority needs to be the safety and security of America’s citizens.”
Does violently invading American cities in tactical gear, masks and unmarked cars; violently grabbing people who look like they might be foreign and sorting out their actual status later; snatching teenagers out of their workplaces and children on their way to or from school - does any of this prioritize our safety, Congressman Kean?
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In 2024, Rep. Kean twice voted to impeach then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for allegedly refusing to follow immigration law and "a clear breach of public trust.” If he thought policy disputes were enough to warrant impeachment, surely he must realize ICE’s renegade conduct warrants current Secretary Kristi Noem's removal.
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Congressman Kean: Break your silence. Speak out against the Trump regime's cruel attacks American communities. And join the effort in the House to impeach Noem!
Dec. 30, 2025: Kean Puts Rosy Spin on Healthcare Cuts
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In his last constituent newsletter of 2025, Rep. Tom Kean Jr cited his vote for the “Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act,” and claimed it would “lower insurance premiums by an estimated 11%.”
In fact, the bill would not directly change premiums. It would do some potentially positive things: It would appropriate funds to reduce deductibles, copays and coinsurance for low-income people buying insurance on the ACA marketplace. It would enable small businesses to band together and offer health plans to their workers. And it would require Pharmacy Benefit Managers to deal more transparently with employer health plans in setting prescription drug prices.
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Those changes could lead insurers to reduce premiums and could reduce overall costs – for some people in some circumstances.
But crucially, the bill does not renew the enhanced ACA premium tax credits that expired Jan. 1. And that is directly increasing premiums for millions of Americans enrolled in health plans through ACA marketplaces – doubling the cost in many cases. Those affected include more than 45,000 NJ07 residents enrolled through New Jersey's ACA marketplace, GetCoveredNJ.
Congressman Kean said in his newsletter that he remains committed to extending the ACA premium tax credits “as soon as possible” by forging “a responsible bi-partisan solution.” Yet he voted to pass the Republican healthcare bill that doesn’t extend the credit. And he failed to mention that Republican leadership blocked alternative bills which would have extended the tax credits for 2 or 4 years.
Kean also didn’t mention that he voted with his Republican Party earlier last year to approve the so-called Big Beautiful Bill – rejecting Democratic proposals to add an extension of the expiring ACA premium tax credit through 2026. He also backed his party when it shut down the government rather than include an extension of the credit in a government funding bill.
Kean’s expressed willingness to act in a bipartisan manner rings hollow given that he sided with his party three times in defeating Democratic efforts to preserve the ACA credit.
In short, Congressman Kean claims he’s committed to extending the ACA premium tax credits – and claims to seek bipartisan solutions to rising health care costs. Yet he repeatedly has refused to join with Democrats in supporting bills that would have avoided the soaring ACA premiums now taking effect.
Does Kean seek “bipartisan solutions” only when Republican leadership gives the green light?
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When the needs of his NJ07 constituents conflict with the Republican Party line, Congressman Kean makes it very clear which he cares about.