NJ One Step Closer to Making Law Limiting ICE Permanent

Racing against the legislative calendar, the New Jersey Legislature on Monday passed three immigration protection bills that advocates had fought for over several years.

The bills limit local police cooperation with ICE agents, restrict how government agencies collect and share immigration status information, and designate schools, hospitals, places of worship, and other sensitive locations as off-limits for federal immigration enforcement.

The legislation won’t become officially permanent until Gov. Phil Murphy signs them into law before he leaves office.

“These bills will cement long overdue protections for immigrant New Jerseyans and allow people to access state and local government services without fear of detention and deportation,” said Ami Kachalia of ACLU New Jersey in a statement.

“As we witness people dying at the hands of ICE and CBP and the escalating attacks on immigrant communities across the country, we are proud that our state is taking bold action to meet the moment,” Kachalia added.

📣 WHEN WE FIGHT! 💥 WE WIN! 📣

Thank you to our Assembly Prime Sponsors Ellen Park (D-37) and Annette Quijano (D-20) for their fierce advocacy on these three bills! ✊ pic.twitter.com/Sr3twCgnIE

— NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice (@NJAIJ) January 12, 2026

The legislation is a compromise between lawmakers and advocates, born out of the long-stalled Immigrant Trust Act. Democratic Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill has avoided taking a clear position on the bill during her campaign, expressing concern that codifying protections could draw legal challenges and attention from President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has sued New Jersey over its Immigrant Trust Directive in 2020, the attorney general rule which the new bill codifies, but the case was eventually dismissed.

What the Bills Say

The three bills—dubbed the Safe Communities Act, Privacy Protection Act, and Strengthening Trust Between Law Enforcement and Immigrant Communities Act—are different from the original Immigrant Trust Act in several key ways:

• Codifying the Immigrant Trust Directive: This is a state Attorney General policy from 2018 which limits how local police can work with federal immigration officials. Directives are not permanent law and could be changed at any moment.
• Due process protections: Unlike the Immigrant Trust Directive, the new law only allows law enforcement cooperation with ICE when someone has been convicted—not merely charged—with serious offenses. People with final orders of removal also benefit from protections, recognizing that many don’t know they have removal orders or have other legal grounds to remain in the country, such as DACA recipients or those with Temporary Protected Status.
• New data privacy safeguards: Motor Vehicle Commission records and automatic license plate reader data cannot be shared with ICE—addressing concerns New Jersey is one of 20 states where MVC data was being shared with federal immigration authorities.
• More sensitive locations specified: An expanded list of places where immigration enforcement should be limited now explicitly includes funeral homes, food pantries, places of worship, and courthouses.

Key Immigrant Protections Bill Frozen

The bills were introduced in early January as the Immigrant Trust Act stalled as lawmakers prepared to restart their legislative session. This would have required any pending bills to be reintroduced.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) and Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) held the power to push the Immigrant Trust Act forward, but never brought it to a vote despite mounting pressure from advocacy groups. When asked by NJ Urban News in December about the bill’s stalled status, both offices declined to comment.

At a rally for immigrant rights in November, advocates stated that immigrant protections were important because President Donald Trump took some of his first enforcement actions in New Jersey last year. ICE raided a Newark fish market just four days after the president took office, and they also opened their first detention center under President Donald Trump’s second term in the Brick City.

State Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson) had been pushing for a version of the Immigrant Trust Act to pass for several years, sponsoring the bill when it was first called the Values Act in 2021. NJ Urban News asked Mukherji at the rally whether he had been given a reason as to why it didn’t pass.

“No, I have not been given a reason,” Mukherji said.

The Stakes for Immigrant Families

In the meantime, advocates say immigrant families’ safety is at stake as they fear sending their children to school, seeking medical care, or even leaving their homes as the Trump administration continues to enact mass deportation plans. Without codified protections, they argue, immigrants have no guarantee that local institutions won’t become pipelines to federal enforcement.

“Immigrant community members are really fearful of reaching out to state services, to agencies, even if they’re fully eligible,” said Viri Martinez of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice at the November rally. “When they think of the state, they think [of] ICE.”