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U.S. District Court Judge Evelyn Padin ruled the federal government lacks standing to challenge the policies in Hoboken, Jersey City, Paterson, and Newark because, even absent the local policies, the state’s Immigrant Trust Directive would still bar local authorities from supporting federal immigration enforcement.
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Assemblyman Ravi Bhalla (D-Hudson), who was mayor of Hoboken when the city implemented its sanctuary policy, commended the judge, saying she “saw right through the Trump administration’s attempt to politicize the Justice Department.”
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Multiple courts have upheld the state-level directive as constitutional. Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, signed a version of the directive into law earlier this year.
Among other things, the directive bars state and local authorities from initiating stops based on an individual’s suspected immigration status or for violations of civil immigration law. It also bars officers from inquiring about a person’s immigration status unless it is relevant to an ongoing investigation of an indictable offense, which is what New Jersey calls felonies. The policy includes exemptions for criminal law enforcement, judicial warrants, and certain joint federal operations not related to civil immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration’s suit did not challenge the state-level policy, and that lack of a challenge was “fatal,” Padin said, because officials in the four cities would still be barred from aiding immigration efforts by the state directive in most cases, so the court could not deliver relief even if it backed the government’s legal arguments.
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The federal government had argued the cities’ policies could not stand because they sought to regulate the actions of federal officials, though the policies only controlled the actions of local law enforcement.
The Trump administration also argued a decision striking the cities’ sanctuary policies could eventually lead to the state policy being overturned, but Padin said that would not happen before her court because she is bound by circuit court precedent upholding the Immigrant Trust Directive (that ruling came after Ocean County’s challenge of the directive).
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Padin dismissed the suit without prejudice, so the Trump administration could bring a renewed challenge to the four cities’ policies.
The post Judge Tosses Trump Challenge to NJ Cities’ Sanctuary Policies for Immigrants appeared first on American Renaissance.
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