New Jersey
Trump's State Of Emergency: Showdown With New Jersey Looms
❗ Trump declares state of emergency at Southern Border
❗ NJ is home to 2.2 million immigrants
❗ Gov. Murphy declared NJ a ‘sanctuary state’
A showdown is likely between New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the Trump administration over immigration.
One of President Donald Trump’s first official actions after returning to the White House was to declare an emergency at the U.S. Southern border with Mexico.
It is the first step toward implementing the president’s promised mass deportation of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Trump has promised to deport up to one-million undocumented immigrants per year and use the U.S. military to accomplish his goal.
New Jersey could end up being a central battle ground between the anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration, and the pro-immigration policies of New Jersey.
New Jersey’s immigrant population
The Migration Policy Institute estimates New Jersey’s immigrant population at 2.2 million people.
That makes New Jersey home to one of the largest immigration populations in the United States.
Of that number, an estimated 475,00 are in the U.S. illegally.
Another 2,600 are children of undocumented parents. They are the so-called “dreamers” and are considered U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment.
President Trump has indicated he could challenge birthright citizenship but eliminating it would likely require a repeal of the 14th Amendment by Congress.
New Jersey: A Sanctuary State
Prior to his re-election to a second term, Murphy vowed to make New Jersey a safe haven for undocumented immigrants.
“We’ll be a sanctuary – not just city – but state,” Murphy proclaimed.
In 2018, Murphy’s then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued the Immigrant Trust Directive.
Under the directive, Murphy banned state and local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
It also banned local and county jail facilities from housing individuals arrested by immigration agents. The cooperative agreements dated back to the Democratic Bill Clinton administration. In 1996 a law signed by President Clinton allowed local and state law enforcement to partner with the federal government for enforcement of immigration laws.
There have been several republican led efforts to repeal New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive. All have failed.
Democrats in the legislature have introduced a bill that would codify the directive into actual state law, but the bill has been stalled in committee.
What happens now?
Immigrant rights groups have begun holding weekly meetings in an effort to educated migrants about their rights and what to do if immigration agents knock on the door.
Federal law supersedes any state law, but states cannot be compelled to cooperate with immigration agents.
New Jersey cannot, however, prevent teams of immigration agents from moving into the Garden State to round up undocumented individuals.
The recently passed Laken Riley Act would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes.
Where these individuals could be held is still an issue of much debate in New Jersey. Gov. Murphy has banned immigration detention contracts with local and county jails, but that ban is being challenged in court.
Some have speculated the Trump administration could threaten to withhold federal aid to states that refuse to aid immigration agents in their enforcement actions.
Murphy has signaled he is willing to work with President Trump and has asked him to help end New York $9 congestion pricing toll.
“I will never back away from partnering with the Trump Administration where our priorities align,” Murphy said in his State of the State speech last week, “But just as importantly, I will never back down from defending our New Jersey values — if and when they are tested.”
Given Murphy’s and Trump’s vastly different positions on illegal immigration, the issue will surely test the relationship between the Statehouse and the White House.
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In the 2024 presidential election in New Jersey, Donald Trump won 61 municipalities he had lost to Joe Biden four years earlier. Those flipped municipalities are listed below by county and show the percentage point difference between Trump and Harris and between Biden and Trump.
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New Jersey
New Jersey leads effort to challenge Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship
New Jersey and more than a dozen states said Tuesday they are challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said Tuesday that he’s leading a group of 18 states, the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco in filing a lawsuit blocking Trump’s order.
“Presidents have broad power but they are not kings,” Platkin said.
Trump’s order would end the policy of automatically granting citizenship to people born in the U.S., a move he said on the campaign trail he would do once in office.
Platkin and immigrants rights advocates point to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that says people born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens, saying it’s clear that it applies to people whose parents were not legally citizens at the time of their birth.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
President Donald Trump moved to end a decades-old immigration policy known as birthright citizenship when he ordered the cancellation of the constitutional guarantee that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
Trump’s roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfillment of something he’s talked about during the presidential campaign. But whether it succeeds is far from certain as immigration advocates file lawsuits to block the president.
Here’s a closer look at birthright citizenship, Trump’s executive order and reaction to it:
What is birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. People, for instance, in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.
It’s been in place for decades and enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, supporters say. But Trump and allies dispute the reading of the amendment and say there need to be tougher standards on becoming a citizen.
What does Trump’s order say?
The order questions that the 14th Amendment extends citizenship automatically to anyone born in the United States.
The 14th Amendment was born in the aftermath of the Civil War and ratified in 1868. It says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order excludes the following people from automatic citizenship: those whose mothers were not legally in the United States and whose fathers were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents; people whose mothers were in the country legally but on a temporary basis and whose fathers were not citizens or legal permanent residents.
It goes on to bar federal agencies from recognizing the citizenship of people in those categories. It takes effect 30 days from Tuesday, on Feb. 19.
New Jersey
In New Jersey, immigrants and advocates brace for Trump crackdown
President Trump has announced plans for what he calls the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, targeting sanctuary cities where undocumented immigrants are supposed to be protected from deportation.
“It’s really scary what immigrant communities are facing,” said Viri Martinez of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “The threat of family separation, communities being separated is very, very real.”
Martinez said the organization has observed an expansion of immigration detention centers in New Jersey over the past six months.
“Since Election Day, we knew what was coming. And more than ever, New Jersey has to step up,” Martinez said.
Incoming national security advisor Rep. Mike Waltz told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on Sunday that the immigration raids will be forceful.
“They’re going to go after criminal gangs that are terrorizing our cities,” Waltz said.
“We’re in a number of conversations with a number of countries that will agree to take them,” Waltz added.
Local immigrant advocacy groups say the move has heightened fear among immigrant communities, who are bracing for intensified enforcement.
In response, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice launched an aggressive “Know Your Rights” campaign to inform immigrants about their protections during encounters with immigration officers and ICE agents.
“Most importantly, don’t answer the door. Don’t provide any information,” Martinez said. “You have a right to remain silent, and you can tell them to not come inside.”
New Jersey
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sends letter on congestion pricing to President Trump
NEW JERSEY (WABC) — Gov. Phil Murphy said he sent President Donald Trump a letter on congestion pricing Monday to request a reexamination of federal approval on the plan.
“As you begin your second term as President, I welcome any opportunity to work with you and your Administration where we can find common ground,” wrote Governor Murphy. “One area where I believe our priorities align is congestion pricing.”
He went on to call the current congestion pricing plan a “scheme.”
“The current congestion pricing scheme is a disaster for working and middle-class New Jersey commuters and residents who need or want to visit lower Manhattan and now need to pay a big fee on top of the bridge and tunnel tolls they already pay,” continued Governor Murphy. “And, adding insult to injury, New Jersey communities are not being fully compensated for the additional traffic and attendant pollution that will be re-routed to them because of congestion pricing.”
Lawyers for New Jersey told a judge they will file an updated legal challenge to the Federal Highway Administration’s “multiple re-evaluations” of congestion pricing.
The legal move keeps New Jersey’s opposition in federal court to the toll pricing going as Trump takes office.
The state plans to drop its unsuccessful attempts to get a restraining order against New York, denied by both a federal judge in Newark and by an appeals court in Philadelphia.
It will instead continue to file challenges with Judge Leo Gordon in Newark, who largely ruled against attempts to block congestion pricing but seems sympathetic to some of New Jersey’s arguments against it.
“New Jersey intends to seek leave of the Court to file an amended complaint to challenge the Federal Highway Administration’s multiple re-evaluations of the congestion pricing program,” attorney Randy Mastro wrote in court papers. “New Jersey expects to file its application shortly.”
Separately, New Jersey will soon launch a $20 million program to give New York businesses in the central business district grants to allow New Jersey residents to work remotely or at a satellite office in the Garden State.
The state will advertise this new program – dubbed NJ RISE, or New Jersey Re-assigning In State Employees program — with billboards at the major bridges and tunnels.
ALSO READ | Student authors honored after immigration stories featured in book
Janice Yu has more on the 58 immigrant students in Newark recognized for the book they wrote, “We Were Strangers Once, Too.”
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