“America has been a haven for immigrants, and simultaneously, it has deprived people of their rights based on ethnicity and national origin. Our state has a choice to make about which version of America we want to embody, and ICE’s constitutionally problematic detainers are a central part of that,” said Amol Sinha, Executive Director of ACLU-NJ. “Courts throughout the country have ruled that detainer requests, which tell jurisdictions to hold people without justification, carry no legal weight. Holding someone without probable cause that they have committed a crime is a textbook example of an unreasonable seizure, and we should not be complicit in the erosion of such fundamental rights.”

Per New Jersey Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive 2007-3, law enforcement officers have discretion to determine when, where, and how they question the status of immigrants they suspect to be undocumented. Since its adoption over a decade ago, the AG directive has been challenged by immigrants rights groups for its lack of clarity.

“Local law enforcement officers must know that honoring immigration detainer requests, or any ICE holds, only hurts the immigrant communities and erodes any trust already built with these communities,” said Chia-Chia Wang, Organizing and Advocacy Director at the American Friends Service Committee’s Immigrant Right Program in New Jersey. “Often times, honoring detainers means funneling immigrants into a system that does not uphold due process or human rights and supporting the separation of families. State policies such as the Attorney General’s Directive 2007-3, which mandates local law enforcement to inquire immigration status of anyone arrested for indictable crimes or DUI, also has similar devastating effects on immigrants, and should be rescinded.”

Despite calls from Governor Murphy to ensure New Jersey is a fair and welcoming state for immigrants, almost all of the state’s counties (19 of 21) honor warrantless detainer requests from ICE. Only two, Burlington and Union, do not. In Middlesex and Ocean Counties, warrantless detainer requests are honored in limited situations.

“Too many of our family members and neighbors are living in fear of ICE’s unconstitutional tactics that lead to cruel family separations. New Jersey is seeing one the most aggressive increases in ICE arrests compared to other states,” said Johanna Calle, director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “We have mothers and fathers in detention facing deportation who have U.S. born children that would be left behind. No one should live in fear in this state for pursuing a better life for their family. New Jersey must act now to limit state and local resources from going towards ICE detention and deportations, including honoring detainers or communications with ICE without judicial warrants.”