New Jersey

Details of proposed major overhaul of U.S. immigration law, global aid package unveiled – New Jersey Monitor

Published

2 years ago

February 4, 2024

Details of proposed major overhaul of U.S. immigration law, global aid package unveiled – New Jersey Monitor

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday night released a $118.28 billion global security package that includes a long-anticipated overhaul of immigration law negotiated by a bipartisan trio of senators.

“The United States and our allies are facing multiple, complex and, in places, coordinated challenges from adversaries who seek to disrupt democracy and expand authoritarian influence around the globe,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said.

The nearly 400-page package includes bipartisan immigration legislation that reportedly would raise the bar for migrants claiming asylum, curb the White House’s use of parole authority to temporarily grant protections to migrants, and end the practice of allowing migrants to live in the United States while they wait for their cases to be heard by an immigration judge.

The immigration provisions, negotiated by the White House and Sens. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, would be the biggest changes to immigration law in nearly 40 years if it is enacted.

Schumer said the deal those three senators worked on for four months “is a real opportunity for Congress to address our borders and make progress towards a more efficient and well-resourced system.”

“This agreement improves an adjudication system that has been underfunded for decades by hiring more frontline personnel, asylum officers, and creating new processes to provide faster and fair decisions,” Schumer said.

Option to shut down the border

The legislation would give the option for the U.S. to shut down the border if there are more than 4,000 encounters recorded with migrants in a day, Sinema said during a Sunday morning interview on the CBS show “Face the Nation,” If that number reaches 5,000 encounters, the U.S. would be required to shut down the border.

Sinema said the proposed policy would be a “powerful tool.”

“The reason we’re doing that is because we want to be able to shut down the system when it gets overloaded, so we have enough time to process those asylum claims,” Sinema said.

Votes could come as early as Wednesday for the package that would provide funding to Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and U.S. border security.

Enacting the bill into law will be an uphill battle, even though President Joe Biden has committed to supporting the deal, as his administration contends with the largest number of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in 20 years.

House Republicans have fallen in line behind former President Donald J. Trump’s opposition to an agreement. Trump’s GOP-leading 2024 presidential campaign has used fears of immigration at the southern border as a central theme.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has argued that Biden has the authority to make immigration policy changes, and does not need Congress to take action.

The release of the long-anticipated immigration bill text and global aid package accompanies a drive by House Republicans to impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over what critics say is policy differences, but it’s unclear if the GOP’s razor-thin majority will prevail. A vote is expected in the coming week.

Johnson has a slim two-vote majority, and even if Mayorkas is impeached, the Democratic-controlled Senate likely would acquit the secretary, meaning he would not be removed.

Sinema says no more ‘catch and release’

Sinema said the bill would end the policy of allowing migrants who are detained to live in U.S. communities while they await having their asylum cases heard by an immigration judge, known colloquially as “catch and release.”

Instead of that practice, Sinema said those migrants would be taken to a short-term detention center, where a quick asylum interview would determine whether that migrant meets the asylum requirements or should be swiftly removed.

Sinema said that those migrants who cannot be detained, such as families, would have a three-month asylum review.

“For folks that we can’t detain, like families, for instance, (we) will ensure that we’re supervising them over the course of just three months and conduct that interview with that new higher standard, requiring them to show more proof early on about whether or not they qualify for asylum and to return them to their country if they do not have the evidence or the proof that they qualify for asylum,” Sinema said.

She added that those who do qualify for asylum will be on a rapid path for approval, within about six months.

There currently is a backlog of more than 3.2 million cases in immigration court, pending under roughly 600 immigration judges, according to the Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, which compiles immigration data.

Many migrants have initial court dates set years in the future. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has estimated that an additional 700 — so 1,349 total — immigration judges would need to be hired in order for the backlog of immigration courts to be cleared by fiscal year 2032.

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New Jersey

Heavy police presence prompts concern in South Jersey neighborhood

Published

3 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Heavy police presence prompts concern in South Jersey neighborhood

MILLVILLE, N.J. (WPVI) — Residents in a Millville, New Jersey, neighborhood spent hours trying to understand what was happening after a New Jersey State Police helicopter circled overhead, and troopers eventually entered a home while searching for a suspect.

Video from a Ring camera shows state police and officers in tactical gear taking over the front porch of a home on the 100 block of Third Street.

Officers are heard speaking into a doorbell camera moments before entering the residence.

A woman who lives in the home and did not want to be identified said she was at work at the time of the incident, but her son was inside when police surrounded the house. She said her son later described the encounter to her.

“My son was here, he was a little freaking out, they actually made him come out with his hands up and guns were drawn,” she said.

The woman said her son told her troopers explained they were pursuing someone on foot in the area.

“They just said they were on a foot pursuit and the guy was jumping the fences behind my house. A construction worker saw him go down my steps, but didn’t know where he went from there. That’s why they need to make sure everything is safe,” she said.

Nearby residents also noticed the heavy police activity.

Michele Brown of Bridgeton said she was walking her dogs when she saw officers in the area.

“It was a lot I didn’t understand what was going on,” Brown said.

Brown said the scene was alarming for people nearby.

“Definitely startling cause you see all these cops with their guns out, and you’re just looking like, ‘Whoa’,” she said.

Action News reached out to New Jersey State Police for more information, but we did not receive a response.

In a statement, Millville police say the suspect was not apprehended after fleeing state police on foot.

There is no suspected threat to the community, the department added.

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New Jersey

Chemistry Class | DEVILS NOW | New Jersey Devils

Published

16 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Chemistry Class | DEVILS NOW | New Jersey Devils

NewJerseyDevils.com is the official web site of the New Jersey Devils, a member team of the National Hockey League (“NHL”). NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 1999-2025 New Jersey Devils and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.

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New Jersey

The first of Paramus’ three big mall makeovers is nearly complete

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

The first of Paramus’ three big mall makeovers is nearly complete

One of three massive redevelopment projects at Paramus’ biggest shopping malls will finish construction this summer. Another will have to wait until 2027.

The two projects will bring hundreds of apartments and thousands of feet of additional retail space to Bergen Town Center and Paramus Park Mall, two of Bergen County’s biggest retail destinations. Both projects are the work of Carlstadt-based Russo Development LLC, which is also building a new headquarters in the borough.

The biggest mall redevelopment in town — a multiyear plan that could bring as many as 1,400 homes to Westfield Garden State Plaza — is also underway under the direction of a different developer. That project is expected to hold an official groundbreaking in the coming weeks.

The construction is “an opportunity for affordable housing to get built, which is certainly a big priority for almost every municipality in New Jersey right now,” Russo Development CEO Ed Russo said in a recent interview. He credited borough officials for making sure “there was additional investment and vibrance that was being added” to Paramus’ commercial center.

Paramus Park housing almost done

First in line for completion is Vermella Paramus, two mixed-use buildings with 360 one-, two- and three- bedroom apartments under construction next to the Paramus Park Mall, west of the Garden State Parkway.

The project will also have 8,000 square feet of onsite retail space. It will be built adjacent to the mall and the new Valley Hospital, according to a description on the company’s website.

One of the buildings will be finished next month, while the second is scheduled to finish construction in June, Russo said last week.

Bergen Town Center project has new name, timeline

The developer, alongside KRE Group, also plans to build two five-story buildings with 426 units and 5,000 square feet of retail at Bergen Town Center, off of Route 4. The project will be called Bergen Chapters, Russo said.

The housing will include 147 one-bedroom apartments to be sold at market rate and another 12 reserved as affordable. The project will also have 1,572 parking spaces, including lots from other areas of the mall property and two parking garages.

A building on the east side of the Bergen Town Center property that currently contains a former Kirkland’s, Red Robin and Recreational Equipment Inc will be knocked down for the project. Recreational Equipment Inc. closed in late January, so the property has only become vacant in the last month, said Russo. He expects the work to finish in late 2027.

Story continues after gallery.

Living at the mall

Paramus’ three big projects fueled speculation that other shopping centers in North Jersey would follow the example, as mall owners looked for ways to survive the rise of online retail.

But there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of mall redevelopment in New Jersey, Russo said.

Paramus’ situation is unique, he noted, with “three good size malls” all within the same town. Spurred in part by state affordable housing mandates, the borough council adopted zoning in 2016 that allowed for mixed-use development along its highway corridor. That was the impetus for the three mall makeovers, Russo said.

Other factors also made the borough’s commercial corridor especially suited for this type of hybrid development, he added.

“Paramus has always been considered, for many decades, as a shopping mecca between the malls, Route 17, Route 4 and the proximity to New York City,” said Russo. “It’s really been a vibrant retail community for many years.”

In addition to fulfilling affordable housing obligations, the zoning helped the borough attract new investment around the malls, boosting their long-term success, he added.

“The retail market has been affected in a larger part of New Jersey over the last number of years,” said Russo. “I think Paramus was very forward-thinking in the zoning that they did years ago.”

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