The state’s U.S. attorney is pushing back on the state police chief’s new warning that New Jersey cops can’t help federal immigration officials with civil enforcement.
“Let me be clear: executive orders will be followed and enforced in the state of New Jersey,” Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on social media Tuesday.
Habba was taking aim at a March 24 memo from New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan telling state police personnelthat the New JerseyImmigrant Trust Directive bars police from arresting people solely based on immigration status and prohibits them from sharing information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The memo notes the directive differentiates between an administrative warrant, which is issued by a federal agency like ICE, and a judicial warrant, signed by a judge.
“Taking law enforcement action by arresting a subject based solely on an ‘Outstanding Administrative Warrant’ would violate the Attorney General’s Immigrant Trust Directive referenced above,” Callahan said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the New Jersey Monitor.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond for further comment. State Police spokesman Trooper Charles Marchan said the memo “speaks for itself.”
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, he has made detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants a top priority of his second term in the White House. His crackdown on immigration has gone beyond migrants, withmore legal permanent residents being detained and facing deportation.
About 27,000 warrants of removal were added to a federal database last month, according to Callahan’s memo. It’s unclear how many of those are for New Jersey residents.
Callahan warned that troopers are not to arrest people for outstanding administrative warrants and to “pay particular attention” to the wording of the warrant to ensure they adhere to the Immigrant Trust Directive.
Since 2018, the Immigrant Trust Directive has limited the information New Jersey police officers can share with federal civil immigration agents. The directive also prevents officers from detaining people based on suspected or actual immigration status and from questioning someone’s status unless relevant to a criminal investigation.
While critics have said the directive amounts to New Jersey providing “sanctuary” status to undocumented immigrants, the directive does not prevent authorities from helping immigration agents detain suspected criminals.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin said the 2018 directive ensures that cops spend their time tackling public safety issues while ensuring victims of and witnesses to crimes feel free to speak to police regardless of their immigration status. He added the directive was drafted in cooperation with chiefs of police and county prosecutors.
“Under the Immigrant Trust Directive, state and local law enforcement have and will continue to work with federal authorities to remove violent criminals from this country. Plain and simple, there is no ‘sanctuary’ for criminals in New Jersey,” Platkin said in a statement.
Activists have beenpushing New Jersey lawmakers to pass the Immigrant Trust Act, which would codify the directive and other protections for undocumented immigrants. The bill would require the attorney general to develop policies on so-called sensitive locations like health care facilities and public schools where assisting immigration authorities would be barred.
The bill has not yet been heard by a legislative committee, and leadership has not commented on plans to advance it.
The Trump administration has announced plans to open a new immigration detention facilityin Newark this summer, which the city isfighting in court.
Dana Difillippo contributed to this report.
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