Trenton, New Jersey. In addition to promising to provide federal immigration authorities with access to immigrant driver’s license records and to enforce collaboration between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Republican gubernatorial candidate Joseph Rullo declared his intention to abolish New Jersey’s sanctuary state policies if elected.
Rullo declared he would immediately revoke New Jersey’s sanctuary state status, a move backed by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy at the moment. In order to stop violent felons from being reintegrated into society, he intends to require that sheriff’s offices, police departments, and jails throughout the state abide by ICE detainer requests.
In line with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement approach, Rullo declared that New Jersey would transition from a sanctuary state to a state of law and order. Rullo declared his support for Homeland Security Director Tom Homan’s position that sanctuary policies jeopardize public safety and promised to work closely with federal officials to strengthen deportation efforts.
Rullo’s proposed amendments would provide Homeland Security and ICE authorities access to New Jersey’s database of immigrant driver’s licenses.
Under Murphy’s administration, the database—which was established in accordance with a 2019 law that permits unauthorized immigrants to acquire regular driver’s licenses—has been protected from federal immigration agents. According to Rullo, this data is essential for identifying those who should be deported first because they represent a safety risk.
In order to ensure that the voting rolls are free of illegal immigrants who may have been automatically registered to vote when they obtained their driver’s license, Rullo added that he will use that database to compare voting records from New Jersey.
Rullo criticized Murphy’s policies, arguing that they require ICE to undertake risky community raids, and stated that Homeland Security and ICE must remove the criminals from the jails as soon as Trump begins mass criminal deportations.
According to Rullo, we shouldn’t force federal agents to operate in our neighborhoods, endangering local law enforcement, citizens, federal agents, and criminal migrants. We should also avoid putting our communities at risk.
Immigrant advocacy organizations have responded sharply to the revelation, claiming that giving ICE access to driver’s license records would discourage illegal people from getting licenses, endangering road safety and the relationship of trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities.
If Rullo wins the governorship, his plan would represent a dramatic change in New Jersey’s approach to immigration enforcement because it is so different from the state’s current rules.
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