New Jersey lawmakers move to rein in ICE with taxes and hiring bans

A group of state lawmakers has introduced a raft of new bills aimed at kneecapping the power of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents after a controversial encounter earlier this month at a Hudson County rail station.

The proposals to heavily tax private detention centers, open all crime scenes to local law enforcement, and bar ICE agents from public employment are a reaction to ICE’s “escalating tactics” throughout the state, the bills’ five Democratic sponsors said in a press release.

Those questionable actions include the agency’s warrantless raids, deployment of masked men in unmarked cars, and the targeting of residents outside jobs and schools, the lawmakers’ statement said.

Specifically, lawmakers cited an early February encounter in which federal agents detained 10 people at a Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station near the Hoboken/Jersey City border.

“ICE has no place in our communities,” Assemblyman Ravi Bhalla, a Hoboken Democrat, said in the release. “These bills help make it clear that whether it’s ongoing attempts at mass incarceration of immigrants in private prison camps or ICE agents seeking employment as local police officers and teachers, we will fight tooth and nail to protect the interests of New Jersey residents.”

Should they pass, the measures would act in concert with a fleet of other anti-ICE bills working their way through the legislature as the Garden State fights back against the Trump administration’s sweeping, sometimes violent immigration raids.

Among these are proposals banning ICE agents from wearing masks in New Jersey; forbidding government and health care providers from collecting or sharing immigrant status information; and codifying former state attorney general Gurbir Grewal’s Immigrant Trust Directive, which stops local cops from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

Rookie Gov. Mikie Sherrill has already taken similarly aggressive steps in her first month in office.

Last week, she signed an executive order that bars ICE agents from staging raids on state property and creates an online portal where New Jerseyans can upload videos of their ICE encounters.

This will help the state hold the agency accountable for its potentially lawbreaking activities, such as using excessive force, conducting warrantless searches, interfering with voting, or racial profiling, her office said in a statement.

“Today, we are making clear that the Trump administration’s lawless actions will not go unchecked in New Jersey,” Sherrill said. “Given ICE’s willingness to flout the Constitution and violently endanger communities – detaining children, arresting citizens, and even killing several innocent civilians – I will stand up for New Jerseyans’ right to be safe.”

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security brushed aside lawmakers’ concerns and said they should be glad the agents are here in the first place.

“Through these sanctuary policies, New Jersey politicians are protecting murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists,” a department spokesperson said in an email. “These politicians should be grateful to our brave law enforcement officers for cleaning up their streets by arresting criminal illegal aliens — not bashing them online and peddling false narratives about them.”

“This garbage is contributing to ICE officers facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line every day to defend the lives of American citizens,” the spokesperson added.

Despite the agency’s rhetoric, the package of newly proposed bills — put forward by state Senator Raj Mukherji and Assemblymembers Ravi Bhalla, Katie Brennan, Annette Quijano, and Alixon Collazos-Gill — would undermine ICE’s power in a variety of ways.

The first bill, A-4300, would levy a 50% tax on the gross receipts of private detention facilities with federal contracts, according to the Democratic lawmakers.

That money would go into an immigrant protection fund meant to pay for immigration services for the state’s residents.

This would hit the publicly traded companies running the facilities, such as GEO Group or CoreCivic, directly in the wallet, even as they rake in record-breaking profits.

That hasn’t stopped some investors from griping that the tens of thousands of immigrants held in mostly for-profit facilities aren’t nearly high enough, according to The Appeal.

“One of the big questions … has been the pace of detention by ICE, that it’s been below what investors thought [it] was going to be,” one caller said on a recent CoreCivic earnings call. “I think people thought we’d be at that 100,000 level. We’re at a little over 70,000.”

CoreCivic, the nation’s largest private owner/operator of for-profit prisons, made $116 million in profit last year — an increase of almost 70% over 2024, the outlet added.

The second bill, A-4301, would make it a criminal offense for anyone — including federal officers — to block state and local law enforcement’s access to a crime scene or gathered evidence.

This likely stems from the feds’ refusal to share information about the death of Alex Pretti, an American citizen shot to death last month by ICE agents in Minnesota.

The final bill, A-4302, would disqualify anyone who worked as an ICE agent or officer from September 2025 through January 2029 from holding a state job, including as a cop or teacher.

Several sponsors connected the proposed acts directly with ICE’s push into New Jersey, as well as its agents’ actions at the Hudson County train station.

“When you have ICE agents gloating to elected officials [that] they don’t need warrants to kidnap people off the street, it’s all the proof we need that these aren’t law enforcement agents,” Brennan, a Jersey City Democrat, said in reference to a viral video of ICE agents confronting a city councilman.

“Actions have to have consequences,” she continued. “No more profiting from detention centers, no more obstructing access to crime scenes, and say goodbye to ever wearing a badge or teaching a child in New Jersey if you participate in an ICE raid.”

Collazos-Gill, a Democrat representing Passaic and Essex counties, added that the train station antics “reflected intimidation under the false pretense of protecting the public.”

“When masked agents in unmarked vehicles detain people without clear identification or transparency, that erodes trust and undermines the very principles our Constitution is built on,” she said.

“New Jersey will not be complicit in fear-based tactics that target our immigrant families,” she continued. “This legislative package makes it evident that public spaces are for our communities, not for federal overreach.”