Immigration advocates, stunned by former Gov. Phil Murphy’s rejection of legislation designed to thwart aggressive ICE tactics, say they’ll press lawmakers and the new administration to protect thousands of New Jerseyans at risk of deportation.
At the same time they’re urging communities to know their rights in the face of escalating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
“It is going to be very difficult to start all over and get sponsors and be that voice in the Assembly and Senate,” said Ana Paola Pazmino, executive director of Resistencia en Acción, a migrant justice group. She criticized what she called “the intense aggressiveness of ICE in our streets right now,” adding that five to eight people in Trenton alone were detained one day this week.
New Jersey is home to about 500,000 undocumented residents, for the fifth-largest total among U.S. states, according to the Pew Research Center. Around the country, an estimated 11 million people from foreign countries face forced returns to their homelands under policy by President Donald Trump.
Murphy, whose second and final term ended Tuesday, had cast himself as pro-immigration, often criticizing Trump’s approach. On his last day in office, he signed a measure to ban ICE agents from so-called “sensitive” locations, including schools, hospitals, courthouses and places of worship.
But he left unsigned – or pocket-vetoed – were two related bills that represented years of advocates’ effort. One, the Privacy Protection Act, was to safeguard personal data shared with schools, hospitals and libraries. The second, the Strengthening Trust Act, was to codify an earlier directive to limit state law enforcement cooperation with deportation agents.
In a statement, Murphy said those bills would invite “judicial scrutiny of our state’s immigration policies” and potentially put undocumented residents in greater danger. “That is not something I’m willing to risk when the directive is secure for the foreseeable future.”
The New Jersey chapter of the ACLU called on lawmakers and Gov. Mikie Sherrill to act quickly on another round of legislation.
“In failing to sign these bills, Governor Murphy has left New Jersey without critical protections at a moment when ICE is brutalizing our communities,” ACLU Executive Director Amol Sinha said in a statement.
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