As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions continue in New Jersey and around the country, some have raised questions about how local law enforcement can assist with federal immigration operations.
In New Jersey, the short answer is that, in most cases, they’re not supposed to.
Since the introduction of the New Jersey Immigrant Trust Directive in 2018, and its revision in 2019, guidelines have been in place throughout the state for how local police and federal agents are to interact.
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What is the New Jersey Immigrant Trust Directive?
Issued in 2018 by State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, and revised in 2019, the Immigrant Trust Directive acts as a statewide policy that outlines what amounts of voluntary assistance local law enforcement are able to provide to federal immigration agents.
Can police assist ICE agents in New Jersey?
According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s website, the directive was «designed to strengthen trust between New Jersey’s law enforcement officers and the state’s diverse immigrant communities. The directive ensures that victims and witnesses feel safe reporting crimes to local police without fear of deportation.»
Under this directive, police officers in the state can’t:
Provide access to state or local law enforcement resources to ICE. This includes police equipment, property, office space or databases.
Participate in any ICE civil immigration enforcement operations.
Detain, stop, question, search, or arrest individuals solely based on suspected or actual immigration status.
Ask an individual’s immigration status unless necessary in an ongoing investigation of a serious offense and relative to said offense.
Who does the NJ Immigration Trust Directive apply to?
The directive also applies to state correctional officers and prosecutors.
Under the directive, correctional officers cannot:
Keep a detained individual who has been arrested for a minor offense (without certain prior convictions) for longer than they would otherwise be held because of an ICE «immigration detainer» request.
Let ICE interview detained individuals on criminal charges unless the individual has signed a written consent form and has been advised of their right to a lawyer.
Under the directive, prosecutors can’t:
Request the pretrial detention of an individual solely based on immigration status.
Use an individual’s immigration status to attack their credibility.
What are the immigration law enforcement practices in New Jersey?
While this directive outlines a number of restrictions for local agencies, there are also law enforcement practices that remain unchanged.