Trump Administration Sues New Jersey Over Executive Order Banning Ice From Some State Property

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing New Jersey to overturn Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s executive order limiting ICE agents’ presence on state-owned property, arguing it violates the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

“Such blatant disregard for federal laws that have been on the books for over three decades is not merely a political statement, but is instead deliberate action that jeopardizes the public safety of all Americans. But the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits a state from usurping Congress,” reads the three-count lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Newark and announced Tuesday in a press release.

Sherrill, a Democrat who won the November election in a landslide, issued Executive Order 12 this month, which bars immigration authorities from non-public parts of state-owned property unless they have a judicial warrant. It also prohibits them from using state property as a “staging area, processing location, or operations base.”

Sherrill, who took office last month, has also encouraged residents to monitor Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity — something noted in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit — and set up a portal to upload videos of interactions with the agents.

“Today, we are making clear that the Trump administration’s lawless actions will not go unchecked in New Jersey,” Sherrill said in a Feb. 11 press release announcing the executive order and portal. "Given ICE’s willingness to flout the Constitution and violently endanger communities — detaining children, arresting citizens, and even killing several innocent civilians — I will stand up for New Jerseyans right to be safe.”

The federal lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions the Trump administration has taken against state and local governments that have enacted policies against immigration enforcement. Among them is New York City and four New Jersey municipalities they consider “sanctuary cities”: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Hoboken. The administration also sued California last year over its immigration policies.

Sherrill addressed the lawsuit Tuesday morning when asked about it during an unrelated press conference. “I think what the federal government needs to be focused on right now instead of attacking states like New Jersey working to keep people safe is actually training their ICE agents with some modicum of training, like any law enforcement officer in the state of New Jersey would have, so they can operate better and more safely," she said.

The latest lawsuit argues that Sherrill’s executive order “poses an intolerable obstacle to federal immigration enforcement and directly regulates and discriminates against the Federal Government, in contravention of the Supremacy Clause.”

“Governor Mikie Sherill aims to intentionally obstruct federal law enforcement and celebrates thwarting the constitutional obligation of the President of the United States to take care that federal immigration law be faithfully executed,” reads the 21-page complaint, which misspells Sherrill’s surname five of the eight times she’s mentioned.

The three counts of the lawsuit allege that the executive order violates the supremacy clause in three ways: Because federal immigration law preempts the order, that it’s unlawful discrimination against the federal government and that it’s unlawful regulation of the federal government.

New Jersey's acting attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, said the state looks forward to defending the order in court.

"Instead of working with us to promote public safety and protect our state’s residents, the Trump Administration is wasting its resources on a pointless legal challenge to Governor Sherrill’s executive order," Davenport said in a statement. "Under Governor Sherrill’s leadership, New Jersey will continue to ensure the safety of our state’s immigrant communities."