An Assembly committee on Thursday resurrected two vetoed immigration bills and also advanced a third, to require law enforcement to show their faces and identify themselves when interacting with the public.
Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee, said the bills were important because of “the ongoing assault on our immigrant communities by the federal government” in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
Recent actions in New Jersey were “brazen raids,” he said, and he expects increased activity here by ICE and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“We must make preparations needed to protect our citizens from any threats to their safety,” he said. “That includes threats from our own federal government.”
Along party lines, with majority Democrats in favor, the committee cleared a pair of bills that then-Gov. Phil Murphy left unsigned when his term ended last month. One would put the force of law behind the Immigrant Trust Directive, which limits New Jersey law enforcement interaction with federal immigration agents. The other bill would restrict the collection and sharing of individuals’ immigration status.
The hearing in Trenton grew heated at times. Assemblyman Paul Kanitra (R-Ocean) and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) — a co-sponsor of all three bills — shouted over one another after Kanitra used the phrase “criminal illegal alien.” Quijano countered: “There are no illegal aliens. There are individuals that are undocumented.”
The anti-masking bill would would require local, state and federal law enforcement to show their faces and identification in most cases. Face coverings could be worn for medical needs, in emergencies and for undercover work.
A Fraternal Order of Police representative said the bill goes too far, for instance, preventing a traffic officer from wearing a scarf covering the mouth on cold days, and could pit New Jersey officers against immigration agents who refuse to comply.
The bill was written to apply to all law enforcement, Quijano said, to avoid a potential challenge in federal court, where a judge ruled that California’s mask ban was discriminatory because it applied only to federal agents.
The Assembly committee also cleared a bill to ban governments and health care facilities from collecting and sharing immigration and citizenship status unless the information is necessary to deliver benefits or services. The bill had passed both houses last month, but Murphy didn’t sign it — a step called pocket veto — because, he said, it could have jeopardized “billions of dollars in federal funding for critical programs.”
Debbie White, New Jersey president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, urged its passage.
“Immigrant populations are not coming to our health care facilities because they are too afraid that they’re going to be arrested, whether they are in this country legally or illegally,” White said. Employers, she said, must develop policies “that tell our health care workers how to handle ICE when they come in — because they will.”
On the Immigrant Trust Directive bill, even some supporters said it could be stronger with protections for criminal case defendants and those facing final removal orders.
“If you’re very, very serious about actually protecting our communities, then stop leaving these giant loopholes for ICE to exploit,” said Katie Sastre, executive director of First Friends of New Jersey and New York, a Kearny-based nonprofit group that assists immigrants. “Please strengthen the bill to guarantee protections for everyone.”
Murphy, when he pocket vetoed a version of the bill, said it went too far beyond the Immigrant Trust Directive — which has survived legal challenges — and warned that a potential future judge may not “render the same decision upholding these critical protections.”
Gov. Mikie Sherrill has expressed similar apprehension. The version passed by the committee on Thursday more closely mirrors the directive in place since 2018.
This story is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
