New Jersey Democrats Seek Ban on Police Handing Criminal Illegal Aliens Over to ICE Agents

Elected Democrats in New Jersey are looking to ban police officers in the sanctuary state from seamlessly turning criminal illegal aliens over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for arrest and deportation.

Last week, Democrats advanced legislation that would ban New Jersey law enforcement agencies from entering into 287(g) agreements with ICE which effectively allow local police to smoothly turn criminal illegal aliens over to the agency.

Currently, the Cape May, New Jersey Sheriff’s Department and the Monmouth County, New Jersey Sheriff’s Department both have 287(g) agreements with ICE to take criminal illegal aliens off the streets of their communities.

The plan would prevent the law enforcement agencies from renewing their 287(g) agreements with ICE if passed out of the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy (D).

“Detention centers and correctional facilities in New Jersey have a history of poor conditions, including inadequate medical and mental health care, use of isolated confinement, and incidents of violence and retaliation against people in detention,” the legislation reads:

In keeping with its obligation to protect and advance the health and just treatment of all people within the State of New Jersey, it is therefore the intent of the Legislature to prevent new, expanded, or renewed agreements to detain people for civil immigration purposes. [Emphasis added]

This week, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas suggested he is planning to further gut interior immigration enforcement by limiting ICE’s ability to utilize the 287(g) program to arrest criminal illegal aliens.

Already, Mayorkas has unilaterally ended ICE’s 287(g) agreement with Bristol County, Massachusetts, as well as terminating DHS use of detention facilities in Massachusetts and Georgia — both of which hold criminal illegal aliens.

For months, House and Senate Democrats have been lobbying Biden and Mayorkas to entirely eliminate ICE’s 287(g) program.

This month, an investigation by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) revealed that violent crime and overall crime spiked in two North Carolina counties where local police ended their 287(g) agreements with ICE agents.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.