A controversial new set of rules designed to improve trust between New Jersey police and immigrant communities goes into effect Friday, though not everyone is happy about the changes.
The sweeping new procedures, unveiled in November by State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, outline when the state’s 36,000 police officers can ask people about their immigration status and cut back on cases where police can cooperate with federal Immigration agents. The rules also limit when county jails can detain prisoners who are in the country illegally.
Grewal said the directive does not mean immigrants get a “free pass” if they break the law. But the new rules will make it clear local police officers are not immigration agents and undocumented immigrants should not fear reporting crimes or cooperating with police.
"No law-abiding resident of this great state should live in fear that a routine traffic stop by local police will result in his or her deportation from this country,” Grewal said when he introduced the directive.
ICE officials said the directive makes it harder for immigration agents to do their jobs in New Jersey if local police are forbidden from helping the federal agency in some cases.
When asked about Friday’s deadline for local police to put the new rules into effect, an ICE spokesman referred to a statement from November.
“Ultimately, this directive shields certain criminal aliens, creating a state-sanctioned haven for those seeking to evade federal authorities, all at the expense of the safety and security of the very people the New Jersey Attorney General is charged with protecting,” Matthew Albence, an ICE deputy director, said in the statement.
Here are some of the new rules going into effect today:
1. No asking about immigration status, unless it’s relevant to an investigation of a serious crime.
The new rules say local and state police can’t stop, question, arrest, search or detain an immigrant because they suspect they are living in the U.S. illegally. Police can’t ask about immigration status unless they are investigating a serious crime where it is relevant to the offense.
2. No helping with ICE raids.
New Jersey police officers can’t participate in ICE operations or raids involving civil immigration cases. Local police are also forbidden from giving ICE access to their databases, equipment, office space or other law enforcement resources in those cases. However, local police and ICE can still work together in emergency situations and on joint task forces.
3. Corrections officers can only hold prisoners for ICE in limited circumstances.
New Jersey correction officers are forbidden from allowing ICE agents to interview people detained on criminal charges unless the detainee had consulted a lawyer and signed a consent form.
New Jersey jails also can't honor an ICE "immigration detainer" -- a request that the jail hold an immigrant until ICE can pick him or her up -- unless the detainee has been charged with or convicted of a serious crime or has a pending deportation order from a judge.
ICE officials have protested this practice and repeatedly pointed out cases where undocumented immigrants who committed minor crimes were let out of New Jersey county jails despite requests by ICE that they be held until immigration agents could pick them up.
That means ICE agents will be forced to conduct more raids and arrests of immigrants in their neighborhoods and workplaces, ICE officials warned last year.
“As a result of limited cooperation with local and state authorities, ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests, instead of focusing on arrests at jails and prisons where transfers are safer for ICE officers and the community,” ICE officials said in a statement.
4. Prosecutors can’t discredit witnesses in court based on their immigration status.
New Jersey prosecutors are forbidden from saying witnesses in court lack credibility because they are immigrants living in the country illegally.
Prosecutors also can't ask a judge to hold someone charged with a crime in jail before a trial solely because they are unauthorized immigrants.
5. Law enforcement agencies have to help unauthorized immigrants apply for visas.
All police departments, prosector's offices and law enforcement agencies must develop procedures to help victims and witnesses living in the country illegally to apply for special visas. The T-Visas and U-Visas give unauthorized immigrants a special immigration status for helping with law enforcement investigations.
6. No more making side deals with ICE to deputize local police as immigration officers.
The directive prohibits New Jersey police departments and law enforcement agencies from entering or renewing deals -- called Section 287(g) agreements -- with ICE without the attorney general's permission.
The deals allow local and county police departments to deputize their officers to essentially act as ICE agents and enforce federal immigration laws. Cape May, Salem and Monmouth counties previously had the deals.
However, the new rule does not affect counties, including Essex and Bergen, that have lucrative deals to house ICE detainees in their county jails. Those deals can stand, if the counties choose to continue them, the attorney general said.
7. Report every instance where cops helped ICE.
All state, county and local police departments and agencies need to keep track of every case where they assist federal immigration authorities and report them to the attorney general’s office.
That should include every case where New Jersey's county jails held prisoners accused of serious crimes on ICE detainers so they could be picked up by immigration agents.
The attorney general plans to issue an annual report online showing how often local and state law enforcement agencies help ICE.
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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