The bill would codify protections for undocumented immigrants found in a directive issued by the Attorney General’s Office in 2018. (Photo via U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
In the years following Donald Trump’s first election as president, New Jersey Democrats banned immigration detention centers and approved driver’s licenses for all residents regardless of immigration status.
But with Trump’s second term underway, legislative leaders have not moved a bill that would codify protections for undocumented immigrants, even amid renewed pressure from activists and Trump’s push to make good on his threat to jail and deport undocumented immigrants.
The bill, modeled after a directive issued by former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in 2018 that remains in force, would limit how state and local police departments can cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and it would bar government agencies and hospitals from asking about someone’s immigration status unless required.
Dubbed the Immigrant Trust Act, the bill was introduced in September but has not advanced. Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) said he still hasn’t read it, so he “can’t really speak intelligently in terms of what it does and what it doesn’t do.”
“But that’s not to say that the bill passes or doesn’t pass. It just hasn’t been considered yet,” Scutari said, adding it’s a “complicated issue.”
That drew ire from some advocates who have been pushing for the bill’s passage since before Trump’s reelection. Sara Cullinane, executive director of immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey, noted that similar bills seeking to codify the directive also languished in previous years.
“New Jersey is a state of immigrants, and if we don’t step up now to enact full and robust protections, the whole state will suffer, not just immigrants,” Cullinane said.
Erik Cruz Morales of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice said it’s “disappointing” to see that the bill has not moved since being introduced.
“We know that these threats are serious, and the impact that this is having in communities in New Jersey is very real,” he said.
The advocates’ complaints come as Trump targets the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, who are growing anxious as the president directs federal officials to arrest at least 1,200 undocumented residents per day, double the highest daily average in the past decade.
Under new quotas, immigration officials in New Jersey are directed to make at least 75 arrests per day, according to Gothamist. New Jersey is home to an estimated 460,000 undocumented immigrants and has the sixth-largest share of immigrant residents in the country.
On Jan. 23, immigration enforcement officials detained three undocumented immigrants at a Newark warehouse, questioning some U.S. citizens in the process, according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Officials across the state condemned the sweeps.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is targeting localities that have issued so-called “sanctuary” laws. On Thursday, it sued the state of Illinois and Chicago, alleging they are thwarting federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. One of the targets of Trump’s lawsuit is an Illinois law protecting immigrants called the Illinois Trust Act.
Assemblywoman Ellen Park (D-Bergen), prime sponsor of the New Jersey bill, said the goal is to pass it before the Legislature breaks for summer. She said she’s working to make the bill clearer to lawmakers that it doesn’t stop the federal government from detaining people. She said part of the issue is with the name, so she’s “trying to tinker with it so we can get it passed.”
“The concerns are the same — all we’re doing is codifying the policies that are already out there,” she said. “We’re working on making this a little more clear.”
The legislation would: prevent local law enforcement from participating in civil immigration enforcement or providing federal officials access to state, county, or local data; prohibit local and state police officers from stopping or detaining someone based on their immigration status or place of birth; and create reporting requirements to ensure compliance from local agencies.
The bill would also require the attorney general to develop policies for sensitive locations — places where assisting immigration enforcement would be barred — including health care facilities, public libraries, shelters, and public schools.
The bill hasn’t been heard by any legislative committee, a necessary step toward passage. Scutari did not say whether he plans to advance it any time soon. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) declined to comment.
Lori Nessel is the director of the Immigrants’ Rights and International Human Rights Law Clinic at Seton Hall University School of Law. She said the bill is “incredibly important, certainly now more than ever.”
She noted that the bill would protect non-citizens who come forward and contribute to the state and society overall without being afraid that their actions will lead ICE to target them. Undocumented immigrants are entitled to report a crime to police, register their kids for school, and visit hospitals for health care, but they need the security of knowing the information they provide won’t be shared with federal officials, she said.
Nessel emphasized that the Immigrant Trust Act would codify the sensitive locations that Trump scrapped in an executive order. She also noted that when Gov. Phil Murphy leaves office in January, the directive could be thrown out by his successor unless it is codified by lawmakers.
“We are really looking at the state to offer more protections in light of the lack of protection at the federal level,” she said.
Murphy has said he does not want to comment on the bill because it’s pending legislation. But recent comments he made at Montclair State University indicate he doesn’t think it’s necessary.
Murphy said the bill has “some very attractive elements to it,” but he said the directive is “highly, highly effective, and it has withstood a lot of federal judicial scrutiny.”
“I almost feel like we’re keeping our head down here. What we have in place has worked,” he said. “Whatever we do, I don’t want to undo that.”
The federal law has changed so dramatically that the state’s role in protecting its citizens is absolutely essential.
– Lori Nessel, director of the Immigrants’ Rights and International Human Rights Law Clinic
The bill has 13 co-sponsors in the Senate and 21 in the Assembly — all Democrats. The Democrats hold the majority in both houses, with 25 senators and 52 assembly members.
Among the Democrats who have not yet signed on as a sponsor of the bill is Assemblyman Julio Marenco. Marenco, a Democrat who represents Hudson County, said he supports finding ways to protect immigrant communities, but he’s still reading the bill and plans to reach out to the sponsors about some of its contents.
“My biggest concern is we don’t know how this administration reacts,” Marenco said. “So we pass this bill, and the administration decides, ‘OK, New Jersey, let’s up the ante.’”
Marenco said swiftly passing the Immigrant Trust Act could be a “knee-jerk reaction” to what’s happened in the first weeks of the Trump presidency.
“I don’t think it’s beyond him to get into a tit-for-tat with the state of New Jersey,” he said. “We have to be very prepared with a marathon approach when it comes to not just this but any other issues.”
Trump sued New Jersey over Grewal’s directive in 2020, claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution. The case was dismissed a year later.
Nessel said litigation is unavoidable, pointing to Trump’s repeated threats to officials who don’t carry out his immigration policies. Some lawmakers may have thought the directive would be enough protection in the past, but now the shifting landscape calls for stronger laws, she said.
“The federal law has changed so dramatically that the state’s role in protecting its citizens is absolutely essential,” she said. “We have an obligation to protect everyone and to make clear that there are limits between what the state government does and what the federal government does.”
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