Gov. Mikie Sherrill says new state taxes on ICE detention centers in N.J. are ‘on the table’
Democrats are seeking ways to fight warehouse takeovers as Kristi Noem's N.J. plan proposes housing up to 1,500 people in a space that currently has just two bathrooms.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Friday that “all options are on the table” when asked by The Inquirer whether she would support adding a new tax on ICE detention centers in the state.
A bill introduced in both the state Assembly and Senate last week would implement a 50% tax on the gross receipts of private detention centers in the state and send that money to a fund for immigration services in the state. It has not yet been put up for a vote in either chamber.
Sherrill expressed opposition to new U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detention facilities in the Garden State and said the state can ensure the federal government is following proper legal processes as it buys up warehouses and seeks to expand confinement capacity.
The legislative effort is led in part by progressives who were just elected to the legislature in November — Assembly members Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan, both North Jersey Democrats.
On a national level, Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker, both Democrats, introduced legislation on Thursday that would ban President Donald Trump’s administration from purchasing or converting warehouses for immigration detention or processing.
The efforts come amid bipartisan opposition to an immigration detention center planned for an industrial warehouse in Roxbury, a North Jersey township where an ICE officer recently fired a gun.
Sherrill wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday expressing her opposition to the plan, which the governor said involves housing up to 1,500 beds in a 470,000-square-foot facility that currently has just two bathrooms.
“They really just have not gone through a thoughtful process,” she said during her Gloucester County stop. “It’s going to put some pressure on the town as well, and these types of facilities have a history of not being built in a way that is safe for prisoners.”
New Jersey has existing ICE detention centers at Delaney Hall in Newark and in Elizabeth. The agency has also floated the idea of confining people at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
“This is not a warehouse that’s fit for human habitation, and they say they’re putting 1,500 people in there,” she said of the Roxbury plan. “So there is a lot we can do as a state to prevent this.”
In her Friday letter to Noem, Sherrill denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s lack of transparency around their Roxbury plans — a criticism that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who opposes ICE warehouse facilities in Pennsylvania, has also lodged against the agency.
Protests erupted in Roxbury after the Washington Post included it as a site that ICE was considering. Confusion later ensued after DHS, which oversees ICE, put out contradictory statements to the media over whether they were purchasing a warehouse for a detention center there.
Sherrill also told Noem in her letter that the state will “assess all options to protect the community’s infrastructure, public safety, health, and long-term economic stability,” using “every tool at our disposal.” She said the ICE detention centers in the state and elsewhere are known for “deplorable conditions,” such as overcrowding, undrinkable water, rotten food, and insufficient healthcare.
“In short, DHS’s treatment of human beings — citizen and noncitizen alike — reflects a chilling disregard for both human life and the rule of law,” she said in the letter. “New Jersey will not be complicit in this.”