The Trump administration is targeting New Jersey for lawfully declining to carry out its anti-immigrant agenda.
On May 30, the Trump administration published a national list naming states, counties, and cities – including 21 locations in New Jersey – as “sanctuary” jurisdictions that allegedly obstruct federal immigration enforcement.
Even though the list was removed from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's website on June 1, its existence is still an egregious and shameful effort to intimidate communities and their elected officials who refuse to do the Trump administration’s bidding.
For decades, courts have held that states and municipalities have the authority to determine how their resources should be used to best support and protect those within their jurisdictions. The Constitution prevents the federal government from commandeering state and local resources for federal purposes, including immigration enforcement.
Our state must not be complicit as the Trump administration tramples on the Constitution. New Jersey localities are following federal law and state policies in safeguarding the rights of people who call the Garden State home. The publication of this list must be seen for what it is – the Trump administration attempting to undermine the rights of states in service of its cruel mass detention and deportation agenda.
The Trump administration's efforts to instill fear in communities have resulted in anxieties in families across our state – with parents scared to send their children to school, go to work, or access community resources like health clinics. Unlawful immigration policies and rhetoric are actively disrupting opportunities for community members to connect, support, and empower one another, which is the foundation of healthy, safe, and vibrant communities.
Everyone should feel safe accessing government services, be it registering for school, reporting domestic violence, or seeking health care, without fearing that it may lead to deportation and family separation. That keeps us all safer. But when state and local police are deputized for federal immigration enforcement, it increases mistrust, redirects limited local resources, and distracts local authorities from protecting the communities they are meant to serve.
The law is clear: cities and states have every right to focus on serving their own communities instead of working for ICE. States cannot be forced to use their own resources to help federal immigration agents when that help is considered voluntary under federal law. They cannot be forced to turn over their own community members for deportation absent a valid judicial warrant.
States can, however, create policies that send a clear message, like New Jersey has: all people are welcome, regardless of immigration status, and they should not have to fear their state and local government.
Regardless of proposed threats from the federal government, state and local governments have the right to enact policies and practices that protect all people, despite the Trump administration’s intimidation attempts.
