Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NJ moves toward restricting ICE cooperation, but unclear if Murphy will sign bills
By
Mike Hayes
Published Jan 12, 2026
Modified Jan 13, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
By
Mike Hayes
Published Jan 12, 2026
Modified Jan 13, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
New Jersey lawmakers passed a package of legislation aimed at strengthening the state’s immigrant protections on Monday, setting up a potential fight with the Trump administration as it scales up immigration enforcement across the country.
The package includes a bill that would codify the New Jersey Immigrant Trust Directive, first issued in 2018 by previous state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. The directive restricts when municipal, county and state law enforcement officials can aid federal immigration authorities.
Under the bill, New Jersey law enforcement officials are also prohibited from stopping or detaining anyone based on race or ethnicity, “except when responding to a suspect-specific or investigation-specific situation.”
“We must ensure that everyone — citizens and immigrants alike — is afforded the protections promised by the constitution and treated fairly by law enforcement,” state Sen. Britnee Timberlake, a Democrat from Essex County and one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement last week after the state Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill. “No one should ever be singled out or targeted because of their race.”
Another bill would call for establishing policies to prevent federal agents from operating in so-called “sensitive locations,” such as hospitals and schools. A third would prevent state government agencies and health care facilities from sharing sensitive personal information with federal authorities.
Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has not said whether he plans to sign the legislation before he leaves office next week. His office did not respond to Gothamist’s request for comment on Monday.
The legislative proceedings are among the last in the state Legislature’s current two-year session. New York state lawmakers are also considering a measure to limit police cooperation with immigration authorities.
The move by New Jersey lawmakers comes amid heightened tensions nationally following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis last week. A White House spokesperson criticized the bills last week, before that shooting, and said the state Legislature should “focus on protecting law-abiding citizens, not the criminal aliens who kill them.”
A spokesperson for incoming Gov. Mikie Sherrill, also a Democrat, did not respond to a request to comment on the bills. During her campaign, Sherrill declined to fully support passing the Immigrant Trust Directive into law, citing concerns over its ability to survive a court challenge.
“If this goes up to the Supreme Court, which it likely will, then that overturns other states’ mandates for how they're protecting people,” Sherrill said during a candidate discussion hosted by WNYC and NJ Spotlight News in May.
New Jersey Republicans have pushed back on the package, claiming federal law would supersede these measures. During an Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Assemblymember Bob Auth, a Republican from Bergen County, cited the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause in objecting to the bills.
Amol Sinha, executive director for the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is supporting the legislation, said the Immigrant Trust Directive has survived various court challenges in the past eight years, including one by the first Trump administration.
“The federal government cannot commandeer local resources in order to do its dirty work,” he said. “We've already seen [the directive] stand up as lawful and constitutional twice in federal court, including by a Trump-appointed judge.”
Amy Torres, executive director for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said the measures’ supporters expect the Trump administration to try to stop them from taking effect.
“I think this will be a PR fight more than anything. But the truth is this is about what New Jersey does for itself, versus what it's beholden to the federal government to do,” she said.
In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump appeared to make significant gains with voters in New Jersey. He came within roughly six points of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, about a 10-point improvement compared to his run four years earlier.
That apparent electoral progress by the GOP evaporated in November when Sherrill trounced Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli by about 14 points in the governor’s race.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Tagged
Politics
donald trump
immigration
new jersey
phil murphy
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .