The Democrat governor of New Jersey has ordered the state’s police departments to stop cooperating with immigration officials.
The orders came from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, according to New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, Shore News Network reported.
Murphy’s directive came on the heels of the Trump administration’s addition of 27,000 “Outstanding Administrative Warrants for Removal from the United States” to the FBI’s National Crime Information center (NCIC) as the administration works to fulfill the president’s immigration orders.
“These Administrative Warrant messages appear in NCIC in a method that ALL members are to note they are NOT to be broadcast as ‘NCIC Hits,'” Colonel Patrick Callahan of the New Jersey State Police wrote in an internal memo. “NJDSP members are NOT permitted to contact ICE via the phone numbers provided.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba pushed back on the directives, though, warning New Jersey officials in a post on X, saying, “Let me be clear: Executive Orders will be followed and enforced in the State of New Jersey.”
🚨 Let me be clear: Executive Orders will be followed and enforced in the State of New Jersey. https://t.co/dkghe2UcL4
— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) April 8, 2025
Callahan’s memo is in keeping with New Jersey’s 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive prohibiting state law enforcement agencies from working with federal law enforcement agencies.
Callahan also noted that law enforcement must not alert ICE, even when they come across someone on the alert list or come across them in the normal course of their duties and pointed out that helping ICE with NCIC warrants is not allowed under state law.
Callahan’s memo states:
A sample of how these Administrative Warrant messages appear in NCIC is attached. ALL members must be aware they are NOT to be broadcast as ‘NCIC Hits,’ which would lead our members to believe they are required to arrest the subject. As the Attorney General’s Immigrant Trust Directive outlines, we are NOT to arrest subjects on the ‘Outstanding Administrative Warrant’ entries, even if no other entries are provided. Also, upon receiving notification of an ‘Outstanding Administrative Warrant,’ NJSP members are NOT permitted to contact ICE via the phone numbers provided.
“Members of PSTS must pay particular attention to the wording of ‘Outstanding Administrative Warrant’ in the NCIC message so they adhere to the Attorney General’s Directive 2018-6,” the memo adds.
“Taking law enforcement action by arresting a subject based solely on an “Outstanding Administrative Warrant” would violate the Attorney General’s Immigration Trust Directive referenced above,” the memo concludes.
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