It’s been 18 months since a judge ruled partially against New Jersey in a case over a state law barring immigrant detention. The state wants a federal court to finally hear its appeal. (Stock photo by Greenleaf123/Getty Images)
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office wants a federal appeals court to finally schedule a hearing in a case that pits a private prison contractor against the state’s law barring immigrant detention in the Garden State.
In a letter sent to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals Monday, attorneys for the state note that it’s been 18 months since a federal judge ruled that the state cannot bar private companies from entering into contracts with the federal government to house immigrant detainees here.
Until the 3rd Circuit hears and decides on the state’s appeal of that ruling, the state cannot enforce the state’s law on immigrant detention as it pertains to private companies, Jeremy Feigenbaum, solicitor general at the state Attorney General’s Office, wrote in the letter. Or, as Feigenbaum put it, the state is “prevented from ‘effectuating statutes enacted by representatives of its people.’”
“An oral argument date is needed for the timely resolution of this appeal,” he wrote.
The letter comes four days after a separate company announced it is planning to open a new immigrant jail in Newark later this year, one that will be the largest on the east coast.
The 3rd Circuit was initially set to hear the state’s appeal in December, but an attorney for the federal government could not appear then. A new date has yet to be announced.
Attorneys for the two sides said they would be available between March 27 and May 28, according to Feigenbaum’s letter.
As ICE eyes new immigrant jail in Newark, activists protest conditions at Elizabeth detention center
It’s not unusual for cases to take time to go before the 3rd Circuit. When a federal judge ruled against staffing agencies in July 2023 in a case targeting a state law that offers protections for temporary workers, it took 11 months to reach the panel. But the 3rd Circuit can also hear cases quickly; after a judge sided with gun rights advocates who sued New Jersey over the state’s new gun restriction law in May 2023, the 3rd Circuit heard the state’s appeal in five months later (though it has yet to issue a ruling).
The law at the center of the immigrant detention case was signed in 2021 by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat. It bars private and public entities from entering into contracts to house immigrant detainees, and it came after years of lobbying by immigrant advocates.
CoreCivic, a private firm that runs an immigrant detention center in Elizabeth, sued the state alleging the law is unconstitutional. In August 2023, a federal judge sided partially with CoreCivic, saying the state could bar public entities from contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house immigrant detainees, but it could not prohibit private companies from doing the same.
Since President Donald Trump regained the White House in January, he has said it is a top priority of his to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.