By Ira Mehlman
FAIR
New Jersey is one of 11 states that has declared itself a sanctuary for illegal aliens. It has been so since 2018, when State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued a Law Enforcement Directive known as the Immigrant Trust Directive.
Last weekend, New Jerseyans learned that not only is their state a sanctuary for illegal aliens, but their governor’s personal residence may also be one. At a February 1 event organized by a Democratic Party activist group, Blue Wave New Jersey, and aired on the governor’s YouTube channel, Gov. Phil Murphy intimated that he and his wife have an illegal alien living on the grounds of their home in Middletown.
Sitting before supporters who had gathered at Montclair State University, Murphy said: “Tammy and I were talking about – I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to. And we said, you know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage.”
The remarks came during a freewheeling discussion of the various ways Gov. Murphy’s administration would resist President Trump’s policies. Perhaps energized by a friendly partisan audience that shares his disdain for immigration enforcement, Gov. Murphy decided to poke the hornets’ nest a bit more. “And good luck to the feds coming in to try and get her,” he taunted.
His dare certainly caught the attention of Tom Homan, who is spearheading President Trump’s campaign to find and deport illegal aliens. “It’s a foolish thing what he said, because I got note of it, won’t let it go, will look into it,” Homan vowed during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program last Monday night. “If he’s knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien, that’s a violation of Title 8, United States Code 1324. I will seek prosecution, or [DHS Secretary Kristi Noem] will seek prosecution,” Homan vowed. Then it was Homan’s turn to take a few rhetorical jabs at the governor. “Maybe he’s bluffing. If he’s not, we’ll deal with that,” said Homan.
Within 48 hours of the Montclair State event, Gov. Murphy was claiming that he was indeed bluffing about harboring an illegal alien in his garage. One of his spokespeople quickly walked back the governor’s remarks. “No [illegal alien] ever lived in the home” of the governor and his wife, the representative told the New York Post. Rather, another unnamed source, described by Newsweek as being “close to the governor,” claimed that Murphy was merely “reiterating” a conversation he had with his wife about a legal immigrant in their social circle who was alarmed by the fact that Trump is back in the White House.
The question of who may or may not be living in the governor of New Jersey’s garage makes for juicy headlines. But as the week progressed it became evident that there is a broader and more important push-back effort by the Trump administration against sanctuary policies. On her very first day on the job, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo putting all sanctuary jurisdictions on notice that maintaining those policies will come at a cost.
Attorney General Bondi’s February 5 “Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives” memo states that the “Department of Justice will ensure that, consistent with the law, ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ do not receive access to Federal funds from the Department.” Further, Bondi warned, DOJ might “initiate claw-back or recoupment procedures, where appropriate.” The question of whether federal funding could legally be withheld from sanctuary jurisdictions was left unresolved by the courts when the first Trump administration ended in January 2021. Last Wednesday’s directive from the attorney general was one of several efforts to bring the matter back before the courts.
Sanctuary jurisdictions face more than just the potential loss of federal funds. The memo, hinting at a second front in the administration’s battle against sanctuary jurisdictions, also cautions that DOJ “will seek to take any appropriate enforcement action where state or local practices violate federal laws, regulations, or grant conditions.” Bondi clearly had a specific target in mind when she signed the memo. Twenty-four hours later, DOJ slapped Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois with a lawsuit seeking to “prohibit the State of Illinois and its subdivisions from enforcing several state and local [sanctuary] laws,” claiming that such laws interfere with the federal government’s supremacy over immigration matters.
“The challenged provisions of Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County law reflect their intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,” the lawsuit argues.
For decades, cities, counties and states and their political leaders have been able to get away with hindering federal immigration enforcement at no cost to themselves. Last week sent a clear signal to sanctuary politicians that whether they are acting in a personal or official capacity, there will be a price to pay for obstructing federal enforcement efforts.
