By Stacey Robinson
The Justice Department is suing New Jersey and its governor over an executive order that limits federal immigration enforcement activities on state property.
Filed on Feb. 23, the suit alleged the order violated the Supremacy Clause—the section of the U.S. Constitution that says federal laws generally override state laws—by interfering with the federal government’s mandate to enforce immigration law.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) also alleged the order discriminated against federal law enforcement agents by forbidding them access to areas open to local law enforcement.
“Federal agents are risking their lives to keep New Jersey citizens safe, and yet New Jersey’s leaders are enacting policies designed to obstruct and endanger law enforcement,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement on Feb. 24.
“States may not deliberately interfere with our efforts to remove illegal aliens and arrest criminals—New Jersey’s sanctuary policies will not stand.”
Gov. Mikie Sherrill issued Executive Order 12 earlier this month, forbidding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal officials from carrying out civil immigration enforcement on state property without a judicial warrant.
The order covered office buildings, parking lots, and parking garages. It also included state correctional facilities, the DOJ said, which meant ICE couldn’t use “detainer” requests to ask local law enforcement to hold arrested illegal immigrants for pickup.
Sherrill’s order also blocked ICE from using those facilities as staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases.
“The Trump administration would be better served training its ICE agents to follow the law than wasting taxpayer dollars suing New Jersey for taking measures to strengthen public safety,” Sherrill posted on X in response to the suit.
The governor’s order came amid scrutiny of ICE and its enforcement activities in Minnesota.
“I take seriously my responsibility to keep New Jersey residents safe and, as a Navy veteran and former federal prosecutor, my commitment to upholding the Constitution will never waver,” she said.
The Trump administration has generally defended the agency. Alina Habba, a senior advisor to Bondi, said on social media that Sherrill should check the supremacy clause.
“‘Protecting New Jersey’ shouldn’t mean protecting people who broke federal law to be here,” she said earlier this month.
The legal action is the latest by the DOJ challenging state policies on immigration enforcement. Last August, the agency posted a list of 35 states and jurisdictions it said had policies or laws that impeded immigration enforcement.
It has sued several of those, including New York City, Colorado, and Los Angeles. Some of these lawsuits have been dismissed while states argued that the federal government couldn’t use their resources for immigration enforcement.
Sherrill’s order made a similar argument, saying that the Constitution prevented the federal government from “commandeering the states into assisting or facilitating the administration of federal law.”
