Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is threatening the state of New Jersey with increased raids and arrests over new pro-immigrant policy, using the exact same wording from its threat to the state of California last year, also over pro-immigrant policy.
“ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites,” the thuggish agency threatened regarding New Jersey state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s new directive banning local police collaboration with ICE operations, “which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests.”
Last year, a venomous statement from the former acting ICE director used the same wording: “ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests.” Mass deportation officials recycling threats is about as green as we can expect the Trump administration to get.
New Jersey leaders, thankfully, aren’t budging—“we don’t respond to threats,” Grewal said—and following increased ICE arrests in the state, advocates are applauding the state’s move. Raids “created a climate of extraordinary fear,” Make the Road New Jersey’s Sara Cullaine told Think Progress. “People pulling their children out of schools, too afraid to be out in public. Afterwards came the big campaign to push our state to not aid in deportations.”
The new directive, Think Progress continues, “is the nation’s most comprehensive set of pro-immigrant law enforcement policies, going further than states like California.”
“Immigrant Trust Directive,” according to the state attorney general’s website, “provides that, except in limited circumstances, New Jersey’s law enforcement officers”:
- Cannot stop, question, arrest, search, or detain any individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration status;
- Cannot ask the immigration status of any individual, unless doing so is necessary to the ongoing investigation of a serious offense and relevant to the offense under investigation;
- Cannot participate in civil immigration enforcement operations conducted by ICE;
- Cannot provide ICE with access to state or local law enforcement resources, including equipment, office space, databases, or property, unless those resources are readily available to the public;
- Cannot allow ICE to interview an individual arrested on a criminal charge unless that person is advised of his or her right to a lawyer.
The directive also prohibits local law enforcement from entering 287(g) agreements, through which “ICE deputizes local or state law-enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws.” In reality, it’s a program rife with racial profiling, costs counties millions, and tears families apart. Three New Jersey sheriffs offices are currently in 287(g) agreements with ICE.
What the Immigrant Trust Directive will also do is strengthen trust between immigrant communities and local police. When immigrants feel safe enough to report crime, or when they’ve been the victims of crime, New Jersey neighborhoods become safer for all.
“We know from experience that individuals are far less likely to report a crime to the local police if they fear that the responding officer will turn them over to federal immigration authorities,” Grewal continued. “That fear makes it more difficult for officers to solve crimes and bring suspects to justice.”
“These new rules are designed to draw a clear distinction between local police and federal civil immigration authorities, ensuring that victims and witnesses feel safe reporting crimes to New Jersey’s law enforcement officers. No law-abiding resident of this great state should live in fear that a routine traffic stop by local police will result in his or her deportation from this country.”