Protesters lobbied at the offices of state lawmakers on Tuesday, including Senate President Nick Scutari’s office in Clark, urging action on the proposed Immigrant Trust Act.
The bill, which would codify certain protections for undocumented immigrants, has languished in committee since its introduction last August. The advocates argued that lawmakers need to act now.
“I think Democrats are afraid, and I think that everybody is afraid right now, and I think the community in New Jersey needs to tell our elected officials that fear can’t win the day,” said Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, who heads a nonprofit for immigrant refugees and joined protesters in Clark. “The thing that’s changed dramatically is that it feels to me like, rather than elected leadership feeling strong, to stand up, they are now hedging their bets everywhere you can think.”
About 20 people entered Scutari’s office and met with his chief of staff, who ordered cameras off during the conversation. Scutari (D-Union) wasn’t there, and has refused comment on the bill, although he told the New Jersey Monitor he hasn’t read it yet, and so “can’t really speak intelligently in terms of what it does and what it doesn’t do.”
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) also had no comment.
With all 80 Assembly members on November’s ballot, plus a wide-open governor’s race, immigration reform is a politically hot issue in a state with more than 425,000 undocumented residents.
“There has been overwhelming cowardice within our legislative bodies for years, that has gotten us to this point — that our immigration system has yet to be fixed,” said Charlene Walker, executive director of Faith in New Jersey. She participated in an ACLU-sponsored online conference of advocates, who cited recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — like one at a Newark fish market — and the Trump administration’s promise to launch the largest mass deportation in U.S. history and rescinding sanctuary status for churches, schools and hospitals.
The Immigrant Trust Act would shield personal information from disclosure by state and local government agencies, universities and health care facilities to federal immigration law enforcement. It would codify and enhance the state’s Immigrant Trust Directive that guides New Jersey law enforcement — a directive that has withstood legal challenges. It would also eliminate carve-outs in the directive that disproportionately target Black and brown immigrants in the criminal legal system.
The new U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has sued Illinois and New York over state statutes that protect undocumented immigrants.
