Immigrant advocates want more state money
Push governor to fully fund defense initiative
By: Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The New Jersey Legislature is working on the state's budget for the upcoming fiscal year, [2027] which has to be passed by June 30. [2026]
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Immigrant advocates would like to see legislatures make it a priority to ensure that the Deportation and Detention Defense Initiative is fully funded in the $60.7 billion budget, introduced in March [2026] by Governor Mikie Sherrill.
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The initiative, run by the New Jersey Office of Americans, provides free immigration legal services to income-eligible New Jersey residents at risk of detention or deportation who lack access to legal counsel.
..... Sherrill has been talking about austerity in this budget, seeking about over $2 billion in cuts.
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Nedia Morsy, the director of the immigrants' rights advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey, said she wants to see the initiative is fully funded at $20 million rather than at a little over $8 million, as it has for the past two years, to deal with the federal government's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
..... In New Jersey, there have been 2,636 arrest by ICE officers in the first three months of 2026, according to the Deportation Data Project. That is more than double the number of arrest during the same period in 2025, when there were 1,127 arrests.
..... "A few things exacerbate the need. The first is that the Trump administration will continue to escalate. Secondly, we are preparing for the Roxbury jail to open up," Morsy said. "Then,, the [Sherrill] administration rolled out a portal where folks can report."
..... The Trump administration is looking at converting a warehouse in Roxbury Township into an immigration detention center, which local and state officials are fighting in court. In February, [2026] Sherrill launched an Online portal to report interactions with ICE officers.
..... The initiative is not the only immigrate-related program that advocates want to see get full funding.
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Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina, president of Latina Civic Acton, an organization that sports Latinas who run for office in New Jersey, which had praised Sherrill for passing the bill codifying the Immigrant Trust Directive, agreed with Morsy about the deportation and Detention Defense Initiative being fully funded. She also said a priority for the sate is to ensure full funding in the fiscal budget for Hispanic Women's Resource Center, which are state-funded centers operating in several counties hat provide services, such as finical literacy workshops and job training, to Latinas. The proposed state aid in the budget for these centers is $535,000, a cut of more than $2 million.
..... "At the time that our community needs services and support, this is not the time to defend those centers," Compos-Medina said.
..... Morsy and Campos-Medina are hopeful that the DDI will receive full funding based on recent actions protecting immigrants by Sherrill.
..... Sherrill signed immigrant protection bills on March 25 [2026] that require law enforcement offices to show their faces and present identification before detaining or arresting someone, codify the state attorney general's Immigrant Trust Directive, and limit health care facilities and government agencies from collecting personal information, including immigration status.
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The bills regarding the Immigrant Trust Directive and the collection of personal information were ones former Governor Phil Murphy vetoed in January, [2026] on the last day in served as governor. Meanwhile, Sherrill's mask ban policy, known as the New Jersey Law Enforcement Officer Protection Act, is being challenged with a lawsuit by the trump administration.
..... Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to NorthJersey.com that the mask ban was "irresponsible, reckless, and dangerous," and that Immigration and Customs enforcement offices war masks to protect themselves and the families.
..... "Sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from wearing masks is despicable and a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers," Bis said. "To be crystal clear; we will not abide by this unconstitutional ban. The Supremacy Clause makes it clear that New Jersey's sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement."