NJ bills would codify immigrant protections in wake of ICE shooting
By: Katie Sokko
and Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... A package of bills geared toward protecting immigrant rights in the Garden State will be among those voted on before the last day of the Legislature's lame duck session.
.....
The bills introduced first in the Assembly and before counterparts started making their way through the state senate January 8, [2026] are expected to receive floor votes in both chambers before the end of the season on January 12, [2026] according to state Senate President Nick Scutari.
..... Two bills are the Safe Communities Act, which protects locations like schools, hospitals and libraries from immigration enforcement, the Privacy Protection Act, limiting personal information, such as immigration status, health care facilities and government agencies can collect.
..... The third is legislation to codify and clarify the state's Immigrant trust Directive, which restricts when state, county an local law enforcement can aid federal immigration authorities. That is the most controversial.
..... Under it, law enforcement officers would be prohibited form "stopping, question, arresting, searching or detaining" people based on their actual or suspected citizenship status and asking someone's immigration status unless relevant to an investigation.
..... "Two of them, I think, make total sense," said Scitari. "One of them, i think is slightly problematic beaus I think it opens up this issue for further litigation. It makes New Jersey a target again when I think we are in a better place than other states.
..... Scutari said the legislation could have "unintended consequences" that advocates might not have considered.
..... "I see what's going on in the rest of the country and I just don't want to see it brought to New Jersey;s doorsteps. I think we're in a pretty good space with the directive the way it is," the sense president said. "going further, personally Nick Scutari the senator I'm in favor of, but I worry before the ramification if it does become law of it being challenged and us being targeted by the federal government."
..... He said he's not sure where Governor Phil Murphy stands on the bill or whether it would be signed if made its way to the governor's desk.
..... Murphy would not comment on what he intends to do with specific bills when asked at an unrelated event on January 8. [2026]
..... Advocates flocked to Trenton to testify in each of the committees considering the bill, highlighting the importance of the legislation in light of the MacIntosh against immigrants being taken by the federal government.
..... After hours of testimony and delays to ensure that amendments could be finalized, state Senator Bob Smith called the bill "necessary in order to give New Jersey citizens a chance, and said he will likely see "more atrocities all over the country done by ICE" when he watches the news after leaving the Statehouse.
..... "This is a police force that is totally, totally out of control," he said. "I am a mature adult, and I don't know what the hell has happened to our country."
..... Residents and advocates spoke of the fear and anxiety during the last year [2025] that the Trump administration has instilled in immigrant communities.
.....
Jason Ajike, political director for the Service Employees International Union New Jersey, spoke on behalf of the union's health care workers throughout the state.
..... He noted that there is concern among people that they will put themselves at risk by seeking medical care and that these bills help at all levels of treatment and recovery.
..... Katy Sastre, the executive director of First Friends of New Jersey and New York, explained that her organization supports families and people who are impacted by immigration detention.
..... "We see every single day the terror that ICE is inflicting on our communicates and as someone who is born and raised in one of New Jersey's many vibrant, beautiful immigrant communities as someone who was born and raised in Hudson County, West New York, New Jersey, it is so infuriating to see this happening to our communities right now," she said. "There's nothing abstract about this. I walk down the blocks of my neighborhood and I see signs that say ICE has abducted someone here. There are high school students who have been abducted. This is happening every single day."
..... The bills, while not the same as the Immigrant Trust Act that has been sitting in the Legislature without being considered since September 2024, would take steps to ensure the Immigrant Trust directive, implemented by the attorney general in 2018, would become law.
..... The directive says that state and local police cannot participate in federal immigration enforcement operations or keep someone detained only to comply with a civil mitigation detainer request, The directive includes exemptions if the immigrant is charged or convicted with a "violent or serious offense" or subject to a final order of removal by a judge.
.....
Attorney General Matthew Platkin has often highlighted that new Jersey's Immigrant Trust Directive is "settled law that's been upheld by judges appointed by President Trump."
..... The biggest bill would essentially codify the Immigrant Trust Directive, which restricts when state, county and local law enforcement can aid federal immigration authorities.
..... Under the bill, law enforcement officers would not be allowed to engage in "racially influenced policing."
..... They would be prohibited from "stopping, questioning, arresting, searching or detaining" people based on their actual or suspected citizenship status and asking someone's immigration status unless relevant to an investigation.
..... State, county and local police would not be allowed to provide assistance to federal immigration enforcement on immigration matters. Law enforcement agencies would have to cerate procedures for visa certification requests from potential victims of crime or human trafficking.
..... The bill would also require prosecutors to ,let criminal defendants know of immigration consequences and require their interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to be published on the state Attorney General office's website each year.
..... One bill would require the attorney general to develop policies for sensitive locations, such as public schools, shelters, food pantries,, funeral homes and courthouses, that would prohibit these locations from assisting or participating in federal civil law enforcement. It would also prohibit enforcement at those locations in an effort to ensure eligible individuals are not deterred from seeking services or engaging with institutions. Health care facilities would create and adopt their own similar polices.
.....
The last bill would bar government entities and health care facilities from requesting or collecting certain information, like immigration status, place of birth, social security number and individual taxpayer identification number, unless "strictly necessary" to assess eligibility for the requested public service. There would be an exception for information required by HIPPA. there would also be written consent forms translated in common languages in the state.
..... The bills come at a time when federal officers from ICE and Customs and Border Protection have engaged in aggressive, controversial raids that have led to the arrests. of undocumented immigrants across the country. The raids are part of the restrictive immigration policies implemented by President Donald Trump since taking office in January 2025. He has repeatedly stated he intends to deport at least 11 million undocumented immigrants, though raids have included residents and properly documented individuals as well.
..... ICE and CBP have been criticized and protested for their agents' actions that have posed a danger to the communities where they have been entrenched. The most recent case is the fatal shooting by federal immigration agents of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good on January 7, [2026] which the Department of Homeland Security has defended, while the city's mayor Jacob Fray, has called for ICE to leave the city.