GOP gubernatorial hopeful Jack Ciattarelli said if elected, he would ax the state's sanctuary policy for undocumented immigrants. It's unclear what Democrat Mikie Sherrill would do. (Photo via U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Charles Reed)
By Sophie Nieto-Munoz
Reprinted with permission
New Jersey Monitor
As Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill vie to become New Jersey’s next governor, Ciattarelli has used countless public appearances to tout how he’d shift a controversial state immigration policy — while Sherrill has declined to weigh in.
Ciattarelli has said if he is elected governor in November, he’ll move on “day one” to rescind the state order that provides sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, the Immigrant Trust Directive. The order from the state attorney general, which dates to 2018, restricts when state and local law enforcement can assist federal immigrant agents and from asking someone’s citizenship status if it’s not related to an investigation.
“Executive order No. 1 is ‘no sanctuary cities,’ and we will not be a sanctuary state,” he said at an event in Elizabeth on Thursday.
Sherrill, a congresswoman since 2019, has previously praised the directive without explicitly saying whether she’d seek to continue it if she’s elected. Asked during a Sunday gubernatorial debate whether the directive would remain in place if she becomes governor in January, she declined to answer.
“What I’m going to do is make sure we’re following the law and the Constitution, so that’ll include due process rights and the Constitution,” she said.
New Jersey has become a key battleground in the nation’s political war over immigration. The Trump administration worked with private prison firm Geo Group to open a migrant jail in Newark, Delaney Hall, earlier this year, the first immigrant detention center to open in President Trump’s second term and the largest one on the East Coast. The Trump administration is also eyeing Fort Dix as a potential home for migrant detainees.
The Trump administration has sued four New Jersey cities and their mayors over their local sanctuary policies, while acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba is reportedly investigating Gov. Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matt Platkin, both Democrats, over the Immigrant Trust Directive. Murphy is leaving office in January after two terms.
A Quinnipiac University poll from last week said immigration is a top issue for likely Republican voters in New Jersey, second only to taxes, while the issue ranked less important for Garden State Democrats. In a November 2024 poll of New Jersey voters, the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University found that unaffiliated voters and Republicans named immigration as their second most important issue, while for Democrats, many other issues ranked higher.
Ashley Koning, the director of the Eagleton-Rutgers poll, said it’s not a surprise Sherrill has highlighted other topics on the campaign trail, like affordability and rising utility bills.
“These candidates are defining who they are, who they are not, and talking about those affordability issues in a way they think will best resonate that will best resonate with voters,” Koning said.
Nearly 1 in 4 New Jerseyans are immigrants, and the state is home to more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants.
Sherrill’s public comments on the Immigrant Trust Directive have shifted in recent months.
During the campaign preceding June’s primary, when Sherrill defeated five other Democrats also seeking the state’s top spot, she called the Immigrant Trust Directive “a plan that’s working.” Earlier this year, she characterized the directive Politico New Jersey as “important protections.” Some of her Democratic opponents supported a bill in the Legislature that would codify the order’s protections, while Sherrill argued that signing that bill into law would expose the state to new court challenges.
Her support of the directive was muddier when she spoke at a recent New Jersey Policemen’s Benevolent Association event, where an officer asked what she’d do about illegal immigration and whether she’d allow New Jersey cops to assist federal immigration officers. She responded as she did at Sunday’s debate — saying, “I’m going to follow the law and the Constitution” — comments that were met with some groans from the officers in attendance.
“I am a federal prosecutor. I’m the only one in this race who’s actually deported people for breaking the law,” she responded. “And I get that, that’s what I do. That’s what many of us want to see.”
She added: “We don’t want lawbreakers here. But at the same time, we also need our officers to follow the law, and that’s what I’ll require. Following the law and the Constitution.”
Her comments have frustrated immigrant advocates like Amy Torres, the executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. Torres said after eight years of Murphy championing rights for immigrants, she’s concerned the state is “certainly not going to see more protections for immigrants” under either Ciattarelli or Sherrill.
“It’s not that there aren’t people who understand and realize the importance of this issue. It’s just that, unfortunately, of the two people that are running for governor, one understands it’s an issue, the other seems to think it doesn’t exist at all,” she said.
Torres noted that even though Ciattarelli lands on a different side of the fight than she does, she knows where he stands, unlike with Sherrill. Torres criticized the comments the congresswoman made at the PBA event and said she wants to see Sherrill stand up for immigrants in a forceful way.
“I don’t want to hear the words ‘diversity’ or ‘belonging’ or ‘community.’ I want to hear, ‘This is a state of immigrants and we will defend them, which we’ve been doing for the last eight years,’” Torres said. “It’s impossible to tell where she is.”
Sherrill’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
