New Jersey lawmakers advanced three immigration-related bills intended to strengthen protections for migrants and curb federal immigration agents in the Garden State, though immigrant advocates criticized one of the bills as not robust enough.
The trio of bills, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday after they cleared an Assembly panel last week, includes a proposal to codify the Immigrant Trust Directive, a 2018 state attorney general order that restricts when local and state police can cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“This is an American issue, and I’m here because I believe deeply in our country and in upholding our Constitution, which, again, also protects citizens as well as immigrants,” said bill sponsor Sen. Britnee Timberlake (D-Essex).
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The judiciary committee heard three bills Thursday: one that would restrict law enforcement from wearing masks under certain circumstances, another aimed at increasing privacy protections for information that immigrants share with public entities and health care facilities, and the measure to codify the Immigrant Trust Directive.
Last month the Legislature approved a package of similar immigration bills, including an earlier one codifying the directive that went further than the measure advanced Thursday. After Phil Murphy vetoed it on his last day as governor last month, lawmakers drafted the revised version.
Activists said that while they support codifying the directive — citing concerns that future officials could withdraw it unilaterally — they prefer the version that Murphy vetoed.
“We are not opposed to the spirit of these bills, but we are firmly opposed to the process by which the Legislature is being made to walk back their values in order to provide cover for a new governor who had made ill-informed public statements without understanding the full scope of the issue,” said Amy Torres, head of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office did not respond to a request for comment. When she was running for governor last year, Sherrill said she supports banning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks, but she has expressed concern that codifying the directive would invite lawsuits attempting to strike it down. Federal judges have rejected challenges to the directive.
Activists say the codification bill would allow police to turn over people with final orders of removal or pending criminal charges to immigration agents. They note that ICE is increasingly targeting individuals with no criminal convictions, and that people with protections such as Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals may have final orders of removal that can be appealed and are not actually final.
“Our concern is that if we move forward with the bill as is, and, say, DACA ends, which is on the table now, or TPS ends. We will have many people in New Jersey who are increasingly at risk of detention and deportation and never seeing their families again,” said Ami Kachalia of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
Katy Sastre of First Friends of NJ & NY said the codification bill advanced Thursday “doesn’t rise to the level” of the bill Murphy vetoed. Sastre added that allowing people facing charges to be turned over to immigration agents could deny victims their day in court and create a presumption of guilt.
“You are bypassing due process for tens of thousands of New Jerseyans by removing the final orders of pending charges from the version that was passed in January,” she said. “I know this Legislature can do it, because you already did it.”
The measures largely advanced along party lines, with most Republicans opposing the bills and all Democrats in support. Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union) voted in favor of the anti-masking bill and abstained on the other two.
Sen. Tony Bucco (R-Morris), who voted against the three bills, agreed that patrolling officers shouldn’t be wearing masks for routine duty.
“Part of my concern is that there are things in this legislation that I can support, and there’s things that I can’t, and I think we’re taking a step too far by legislating this,” he said.
In New Jersey, 1 in 4 residents is an immigrant, and more than 500,000 residents are estimated to be undocumented.
Lawmakers have introduced other anti-ICE bills in recent weeks. Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson) said he’ll propose legislation to implement a 50% tax on gross receipts of private detention centers, and to make it a criminal offense for anyone, including federal officers, to block state and local police from a crime scene. Assembly members Katie Brennan and Ravi Bhalla, both Hudson County Democrats, are sponsoring those bills and legislation to ban ICE agents from future government or teaching jobs in New Jersey. Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) said she’ll introduce a measure barring immigration agents from using state property to launch civil enforcement operations.
Bhalla and Brennan are also sponsoring a bill called the “Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered Act” that would permit civil action for constitutional violations related to immigration enforcement.
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