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Sponsor calls immigrant rights bill a 'high priority'

Measure stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee

BY: Ricardo Kaulessar
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Immigrate advocates are continuing to push for the Immigrate Trust Act to become a reality immediately in light of the crackdown by the Trump administration affecting the Garden State.
..... One of the bill's key sponsors in the New Jersey Legislature, however, said recently that passage is unlikely anytime soon.
..... The Immigrant Trust Act, curr4enlty pending in the legislature, would limit New Jersey state and local agencies from sharing personal information with ICE or assisting federal offices in the field when they are enforcing civil warrants, typically issued for low-level offenses like failing to appear in court or staying in the country after a visa expired.
..... Those limits have been in place since the state Attorney General's Office issued a similar Immigrate Trust Directive in 2018. Proponents say it encourages immigrate communities to report crimes and work with local police, since they no longer fear that cooperating could lead to their deportation.
..... The directive allows state and local police to cooperate in cases where immigrants face more serious charges or are subject to a court order. In nonetheless has come under fire from Republicans, who blast it as part of the stat4e's "sanctuary" policies for undocumented immigrants. "It all ends on Day One when I'm governor," Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciatarelli said in an X post earlier this year [2025] as a promise to end the state's protections of migrants.
..... The legislation is considered vital for protecting immigrants in New Jersey, especially as Immigration and Customs enforcement has been leading unannounced raids in the state, as those in Newark in January [2025] and Dover in March. [2025] Also, ICE is overseeing the operation of immigrant detention centers in the state like Delaney Hall in Newark, which has sparked panic and outage in the immigrant community.
..... New Jersey is home to an estimated 475,000 undocumented immigrates the Pew Research Center says, and overall, 2.3 million immigrants, nearly a quarter of the state's population, government data shows.
..... The Immigrant Trust Act was the key topic of discussion among advocates and gubernatorial candidates in the Gardner State at back-to-back events in Newark in April. [2025]
..... At a forum at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on April 16, [2025] several candidates running for governor endorsed the act, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a vocal critic of the Trump administration's immigration policies, who said, "We need to enforce the Immigrant Trust Act."
..... During a panel of immigration advocates held in another part of the arts center on the same day, Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, cited the failure to pass the legislation as an example of the lack of push-back from the governor, state legislators, and even some local officials to the Trump administration.
..... "We're not seeing any courage in leadership to let folks know that there's someone who has their back - even if the federal government is against you, not all government is against you," Torres said.

Legislation will have to wait

..... State Senator Gordon Johnson is one of the main sponsors of the immigrant Trust Act. The legislator, who represents the 37th District, which covers his home base of Englewood along with several other Bergen municipality, introduced the bill in the Senate in September 2024. State Assembly, Ellen Park, introduced the bill in the Assembly in October. [2024]
..... Since then, the bill has been stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee, awaiting a hearing to advance out of committee, as well as the Assembly Oversight Reform, and Federal R Elations Committee, also waiting to be advanced.
..... Johnson, in a recent interview with NorthJersey.com , said that the bill remains a "high priority" for him to pass in the Legislature and then be signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy. but not in the coming weeks due to another legislative priority.
..... "We have to realize that we are in budget season right now, and we have a very difficult budget to get through," Johnson said. "Most of the attention has been trying to get this budget straightened out, where nonprofits don't get hurt and our New Jersey departments ... maintain a level of efficiency. After we get through this budget season, our attention will be turned to other things, such as this bill."
..... Johnson said that even though the IRQA has not been passed, immigrants in the state are already protected by the state's Immigrant Trust Directive, with the Trust Act's codification of the protections offered in the directive.
..... He said he does see the bill being passed before this legislative session ends in January, [2026] as he has had discussions with the majority leadership in the Senate and the Assembly about the bill, and they are aware of its importance.
..... I do believe that this will be done in this session. It may be late in this session, but I think it will be in this session," Johnson said.
..... NorthJersey.com also reached out to Park and the other primary sponsors of the bill - Sean tor Brian Stack and Assembly members Alixon Collazo-Gill, Gabriel Rodriguez,and Eliana Pintor Martin - for comment on the ITA, but did not hear back from them.
..... Questions sent to Governor Phil Murphy about whether hesitancy the legislation begin passed and his hesitancy about the ITA were not returned for comment.
..... During a NorthJersey.com and USA Today Network - New Jersey editorial board meeting in February, [2025] the governor said he had not spoken with legislative leadership about the legislation but through the original guidelines are "sturdy" and "have worked,: and he was "not inclined to do a whole lot of messing" with them while reaming "open-minded" about improving them.

Advocates want urgency

..... Immigrant advocates are doing their part to get support for the act to pass in the Legislature.
..... Adam McGovern, a legislative strategist at Wind of the spirit, an immigrant advocacy group based in Morris and Union counties, is one of many advocates who have been distributing an informational flyer at various events to inform the public about the act and the Immigrant trust directive. He has also joined other advocates in Trenton, for gatherings to put pressure on state legislators, particularly Democrats, to pass the ITA in light of Trump's actions.
..... "The sad fact is that we have to fight Democrats, the supposed opposition party to Trump, to get these basic protections passed in what should be a legislative slam-dunk considering both the majority they hold in both houses and the moral imperative that is clearly facing them,' McGovern said.
..... McGovern blamed primarily Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, saying the two "are setting the agenda and stopping the clock: but the emergency won't wait for them, and there is no reason the ITA needs to be delayed till after the primaries or during lame duck, and every reason to get it in place as soon as we can."
..... Ana Paola Pazmino, executive director of the Princeton-based Resistenciaen Accion New Jersey, which organizes migrant com unites, said she blivets the act will pass before the end of the year. [2025] Paznino said advocates in Princeton and Trenton are doing their part to get support for the ITA on a local level, citing that the Trenton City Council has passed a resolution endorsing it, and the Princeton Council is considering a similar resolution.
..... Pazmino said the legislation is crucial when looking at the impact of the federal government's immigration crackdown on the everyday lives of immigrants that her organization helps.
..... "We're seeing the community relay affected by this, in the sense that the little stuff that used to be regular, routine things are now left undone," Pazmino said. "Maybe taking the kids to extracurricular activities, going to community events and churches. En going to the hospital for care. A lot of people have decided not to do them anymore. They don't want to take the risk of ever encounting ICE."

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