Ocean County Sues New Jersey AG Over Immigrant Directive

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Ocean County officials have filed a federal lawsuit against New Jersey's attorney general's office over a directive issued last year that limits the cooperation of state law enforcement agencies with federal immigration authorities.

The lawsuit is the first in the state over the New Jersey Immigrant Trust Directive issued by Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal in November 2018. The directive went into effect in March, and limits the types of voluntary assistance that New Jersey law enforcement can offer.

The Ocean County Board of Freeholders approved the lawsuit Wednesday at the bimonthly freeholders meeting.

The piece of the directive that Ocean County officials object to most strongly affects cooperation between the county jail and sheriff's office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement .

Prior to the directive, Ocean County jails were visited frequently by ICE agents looking to cross-reference the identities of inmates with wanted immigrants in their database. Since July, the county jail officials have reduced their cooperation with ICE in accordance with the directive, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Under the directive, ICE agents are only allowed to access a database that is available to all members of the general public. Additionally, county jails now will only hold an inmate sought by ICE if the federal agency has a warrant for his or her arrest.

The resolution approved Wednesday says the county wants to resume voluntarily exchanging information with ICE, which the county had done since 2015.

The Immigrant Trust Directive says law enforcement:

Cannot allow ICE to interview individuals detained on criminal charges, unless the detainee is advised of his or her right to a lawyer and signs a written consent form.

Cannot continue to hold a detained individual arrested for a minor criminal offense, without certain prior convictions, past the time he or she would otherwise be released from custody simply because ICE has submitted an "immigration detainer" request.

The county previously had a policy in place since July 2015 that was set up to cooperate with detainer requests from ICE under the ICE Priority Enforcement Program and was jointly developed with the federal agency.

"Under the policy Ocean County would maintain custody, not to exceed 48 hours, of a removable alien who has been identified as an immigration enforcement priority under the Priority Enforcement Program and that probable cause existed that these individuals are removable aliens," county officials said in 2017.

Grewal's Immigrant Trust Directive has been blasted by both state and local legislators, with 10th District Sen. James Holzapfel and Assemblymen Dave Wolfe and Greg McGuckin calling it a step toward turning New Jersey into a sanctuary state.

""It's an outrageous and dangerous political statement that jeopardizes the safety of millions of New Jersey residents," Holzapfel said. "We shouldn't allow the governor to create a sanctuary for criminals in our state."

In Monmouth and Cape May counties, the sheriff's departments extended agreements they had with ICE, allowing some of their officers to screen jail inmates and flag those in the country illegally for deportation, the Asbury Park Press reported. Those extensions drew a sharp rebuke from Grewal, who demanded a detailed justification of the extensions, the report said.

Ocean County officials have reiterated the stance that it is not a sanctuary county on several occasions.

"We are not a sanctuary county, nor has Ocean County ever had an interest in being a sanctuary county," Freeholder John P. Kelly said in 2017, when reports surfaced that indicated the county was on a sanctuary list. That information was later updated.

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