{"id":32300,"date":"2025-02-03T22:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/03\/nj-dem-gubernatorial-candidates-vow-to-impede-ice-pursuit-of-illegal-aliens\/"},"modified":"2025-02-03T22:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:22:09","slug":"nj-dem-gubernatorial-candidates-vow-to-impede-ice-pursuit-of-illegal-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/03\/nj-dem-gubernatorial-candidates-vow-to-impede-ice-pursuit-of-illegal-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ Dem gubernatorial candidates vow to impede ICE pursuit of illegal aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidates during the Garden State\u2019s first primary debate of the year vowed to help illegal immigrants<\/a> avoid President Trump\u2019s ICE raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five out of six candidates raised their hands when debate moderator Joey Fox, of the New Jersey Globe, asked the Democrats on stage if they “believe that one of the goals of the next governor should be protecting immigrants in New Jersey, even those who are here illegally.”<\/p>\n

Candidates vowed to stand up to Trump, committed to comprehensive immigration reform, and vowed to prioritize humanity in the deportation process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR HOUSES MIGRANT AT HIS HOUSE, TELLS FEDS ‘GOOD LUCK’ TRYING TO GET HER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But Rep. Mikie Sherrill did not raise her hand, instead responding, “We should protect people in New Jersey, especially with the Constitution.”<\/p>\n

TRUMP SIGNS LAKEN RILEY ACT INTO LAW AS FIRST LEGISLATIVE VICTORY IN NEW ADMINISTRATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

However, candidates were less certain when discussing the Laken Riley Act, the first bill Trump<\/a> signed into law during his second term. It mandates detaining illegal immigrants who are accused of committing dangerous crimes.<\/p>\n

“If you are a murderer, a criminal, a rapist, if you’re breaking into people’s homes in the middle of the night with a gun while the kids are sleeping, and you’re undocumented, you shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be in the state, you shouldn’t be in this country.” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who voted in support of the Laken Riley Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite Gottheimer\u2019s support for the act, he was careful to distinguish “innocent undocumented people” from those who commit violent crimes. “When I’m governor, I’m going to use the full force of the state to stop” Trump from rounding up “innocent undocumented people” at restaurants, churches and schools, the congressman clarified.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration doesn\u2019t recognize such a distinction. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt<\/a> told reporters last Tuesday that anyone in the United States illegally is considered a criminal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They illegally broke our nation\u2019s laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes,” Leavitt said in a now viral moment. “I know the last administration didn\u2019t see it that way, so it\u2019s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal. But that\u2019s exactly what they are.”<\/p>\n

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop didn\u2019t share Gottheimer\u2019s support for the Laken Riley Act, calling it “dangerous.”<\/p>\n

“The Laken Riley Act served to undermine the authority of the attorney general here in New Jersey,” Fulop said. “It is a very dangerous piece of legislation as it relates to autonomy of the governor and the attorney general here, and it should not have been supported.”<\/p>\n

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a vocal opponent of the ICE raids authorized in his city during Trump\u2019s first week in office, took opposition to the bill a step further.<\/p>\n

“You can’t say you support immigrants in New Jersey but vote for the Laken Riley Act,”\u00a0Baraka said. “We need to stop having this conversation about people being murderers and killers and rapists and criminals. We know that’s a lie. There is no crime wave of immigrants in New Jersey.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Baraka went as far as to say Trump\u2019s political agenda is rooted in “White supremacy and racism.”<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s interesting that we keep saying that people are here illegally when we keep moving the goalpost,” Baraka said. “If we take away all of the pathways that people become documented citizens of the United States and then say they’re illegal, it\u2019s a problem. We cannot risk the Fourth and 14th Amendment to push this political agenda that Donald Trump has really based in White supremacy and racism.”<\/p>\n

Former New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney said New Jersey should stand up to Trump\u2019s deportations, emphasizing the lack of legal search warrants in these ICE raids. However, Sweeney agreed that someone with a criminal record who enters the United States or “someone that breaks the law in this country shouldn’t be in this country,” calling it a “privilege.”<\/p>\n

“With Donald Trump, we all should stand and oppose what Donald Trump’s doing. He’s breaking the law. He’s doing it illegally. He’s doing it without legal search warrants. It\u2019s horrible what he’s doing.” Sweeney said.<\/p>\n

New Jersey<\/a> Education Association President Sean Spiller echoed Sweeney\u2019s distaste for Trump\u2019s inhumane deportations, telling New Jerseyans they should be scared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re coming for all of us, and that should scare every single one of us. That’s unacceptable. That\u2019s what we stand up and fight back against,”\u00a0Spiller said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite taking a hard line against President Trump, the Democratic candidates recognized immigration reform as a necessity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think that what’s missing in the conversation so many times is basic humanity,” Sherrill said. “We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform. We need to make sure people have a pathway to citizenship who are here, who are working hard, who are paying taxes, DACA recipients, TPS recipients.\u00a0We also need better border security. We need to know what’s coming across our border.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidates during the Garden State\u2019s first primary debate of the year vowed to help illegal immigrants avoid President Trump\u2019s ICE raids.\u00a0 Five out of six candidates raised their hands when debate moderator Joey Fox, of the New Jersey Globe, asked the Democrats on stage if they “believe that one of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}