New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed three immigration enforcement-related bills into law on Tuesday, including a bill codifying the Immigrant Trust Directive (ITD). The policy was first issued by the state attorney general in 2018, limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The other two bills restrict law enforcement from sharing a person’s immigration status without a warrant and prohibit law enforcement from wearing masks when interacting with the public.
“Donald Trump’s untrained, unaccountable, masked ICE agents are putting people in danger,” Sherrill said in a press release.
Since 2018, legislative and advocacy-driven efforts to codify the ITD have been fraught. In January, during his last hours in office, then-Governor Phil Murphy controversially declined to sign a measure that would codify the ITD, arguing that the law could trigger challenges in court that could further endanger immigrants.
While on the campaign trail last year, Sherrill declined to respond when asked if she would keep the ITD, though she has expressed harsh criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policies throughout her time in office.
Several key differences exist between the version of the bill that Sherrill signed into law and the one on Murphy’s desk earlier this year. The new bill permits jails to cooperate with federal immigration officials if a person is subject to a final order of removal, which is a new addition. Some people with protections like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Temporary Protected Status have final orders of removal, but are not considered being subject to imminent deportation.
Additionally, local officials can provide a notice to federal enforcement when someone has been charged with a “violent or serious offense,” without necessarily being convicted. The January bill also barred police from giving federal immigration authorities access to non-public resources — including equipment, offices, facilities, databases, and funds. The revision signed by Sherrill narrows this list by removing “facilities” from the restriction.
Immigration advocacy groups in Princeton and across the Garden State lauded the trio of bills signed into law, noting increased accountability for ICE agents and added protections for immigrants.
Students for Prison Education, Abolition, and Reform “is always happy to see when the immigration system and the carceral system can be disentangled in any way and [when] we can prevent the more carceral and punitive forms of immigration enforcement,” Kristin Nagy ’27, the co-president of SPEAR, told The Daily Princetonian.
“These methods of accountability for ICE officers and the state’s work to prevent their abuses of power are definitely something positive and will hopefully have positive impacts for local immigrants in Princeton,” she continued.
Alan Paluck, clinic coordinator at Solidaridad Central Jersey, a volunteer-led organization aimed at assisting immigrants seeking asylum and legal status, highlighted that the codification of the ITD was “a long time coming.”
“[The bills] have been bounced around for years in terms of codifying [them] into law, and Mikie Sherrill has been able to do that finally,” Paluck told the ‘Prince.’ “I think those were three [laws] that we certainly wholeheartedly support.”
“We are … glad that we got some protections, including putting parts of the ITD into law instead of it depending on who the governor is,” Asma Elhuni, an organizer for local immigrant rights group Resistencia en Acción NJ, wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’
“For our communities, that means they will feel a bit safer interacting with agencies that now have clearer guidelines that ensure no unnecessary collecting of private information, which matters in everyday interactions,” Elhuni continued.
Still, some immigration advocates expressed wariness toward ICE’s compliance with the new laws and noted that additional protections were necessary to protect vulnerable populations.
“We know that ICE is a lawless organization — they may not listen to what state government has to say,” Nagy said. “We do know that a lot of these bills are concerned with preventing collaboration between New Jersey police and ICE, but the New Jersey police are also not a benevolent organization.”
At Princeton, law enforcement officials have consistently drawn a clear line between actions led by federal officials and local officials. “The Princeton Police Department does not participate in the enforcement of federal civil immigration matters,” Matthew Solovay, the Chief of the Princeton Police Department, wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince’ in October 2025. In the statement, Solovay also emphasized that officers do not partake in ICE operations.
“The town council has basically stood firm in saying that we choose to honor a system of not working with [ICE] unless there’s a warrant,” Paluck said.
Elhuni criticized how the state still allows law enforcement to share information with ICE when people have charges against them, noting that the status quo “undermin[es] due process and bas[es] guilt on accusations alone.”
“We’re also disappointed that the privacy bill was watered down, still allowing agencies to share personal information without notifying people, though we are glad to see some limitations on what information is allowed to be gathered,” she added.
The new version of the data protection bill removes a requirement for healthcare facilities to notify people if their information is shared. However, a new 90-day timeline of notification is added for when government entities are compelled to share information. The previous version of the bill did not specify when the affected person had to be notified by.
“We believe that while this is a positive development in the right direction, it doesn’t mean that we can act as if ICE is no longer a threat or a problem, because [ICE] continues to be a threat to our local community,” Nagy said.
“Progress is good, but isn’t enough if the most vulnerable are still left exposed,” Elhuni wrote. “We have more work to do.”
Sena Chang is the associate News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading investigations. She is from Japan and South Korea, and she often covers local politics and student life. She can be reached at sena[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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