New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill will ban ICE agents from wearing masks and protect immigration data by signing new laws

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill plans to sign three bills into law that would ban ICE agents from wearing masks, protect residents’ immigration data, and enshrine the state’s sanctuary policy into law.

The New Jersey legislature passed the three bills on Monday as state legislators across the country are looking for ways to curb President Donald Trump’s federal immigration enforcement tactics.

“Gov. Sherrill is committed to protecting Constitutional rights and public safety in New Jersey, and intends to sign this legislation in the near future,” Sherrill spokesperson Sean Higgins said in a statement.

The Democratic governor, who began her term in January, has repeatedly spoken out against President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics.

The Sherrill administration and Trump administration have traded lawsuits about immigration enforcement, and her administration has urged New Jerseyans to submit videos of ICE to her attorney general’s office.

Republican lawmakers vocally opposed these Democratic-led bills and defended ICE, but Sherrill’s party — which holds majorities in both houses — easily passed the legislation against their objections.

Here’s what the bills would do:

Legislators voted to ban law enforcement agents from wearing masks and require them to identify themselves, but the bill provides plenty of exceptions that could allow agents to skirt the policy.

Democrats across the country pushing for reforms to ICE have argued that the onslaught of masked agents in public have sparked fear, safety concerns, and a lack of accountability. Defenders of these agents say they should be masked to protect their identities in the face of a national backlash.

“I believe, and I believe the other sponsors believe, that when people can clearly identify officers and understand who is exercising authority at that time, not only does it improve cooperation, but it reduces confusion in those situations,” Sen. Troy Singleton, a Burlington County Democrat and prime sponsor of the bill said in an interview. “And frankly, I think it strengthens public safety overall.”

The Senate passed the bill 24-14 and the Assembly passed it 52-18, mostly on party lines. Two Republicans supported this bill: Assembly member Donald Guardian, the former Atlantic City mayor, and Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Trump critic who ran for governor last year and lives in Union County.

Sherrill has spoken out about ICE agents failing to identify themselves, so it’s no surprise she plans to sign the bill.

But the bill lays out seven exceptions that would still allow agents to cover their faces:

The bill also requires agents to wear a uniform with an insignia, show an ID or badge number, or provide their name an agency before arresting or detaining someone.

But this also comes with exceptions if revealing their identity would compromise an investigation, if a supervisor “determines stealth is necessary,” or if a law enforcement officer “reasonably believes” that their personal safety is at risk.

So what’s to stop an ICE supervisor to just say they determined they need to be stealthy?

Singleton emphasized that trying to take advantage of the exceptions would undermine trust with law enforcement, which the bill seeks to strengthen.

“I would sincerely hope that those individuals would not look to purposefully usurp what we believe were fair and reasonable exceptions, based on conversations with members of law enforcement here in the state of New Jersey,” he said.

Assembly member Dawn Fantasia, a North Jersey Republican, argued ahead of the vote that the state doesn’t have authority over federal law enforcement.

“Why do we keep passing laws that are going to end up in court?” she said. “We lose and the taxpayer gets shafted over and over and over.”

A federal judge in California ruled against a face mask ban for federal agents because it treated federal law enforcement differently than state-level officers, but the New Jersey bill applies to all law enforcement.

The legislature also passed the Privacy Protection Act, which aims to limit government agencies and health care facilities from collecting immigration-related data unless it’s required. The effort comes as the Trump administration has sought out this kind of data for immigration enforcement.

The bill was passed 52-21 in the Assembly and 23-14 in the Senate along party lines.

It directs government agencies and health care facilities not to request or collect people’s immigration or citizenship status, place of birth, social security number, or individual taxpayer identification number, unless it is necessary to determine eligibility or to provide a service.

In the case that information is gathered, these entities are directed to keep the information private with exceptions, like if it’s required for assessing eligibility for programs or requested by a judicial warrant.

The bill also limits how automated license plate recognition data can be used, though it permits state law enforcement from getting this information if it’s needed for a criminal investigation and will not be provided for civil immigration enforcement.

Former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed this bill at the end of his term over an issue he had with its wording.

The legislature also voted to enshrine the state’s current sanctuary policy as a law. The state’s policy limits state law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE in order to foster trust between immigrants and police officers.

The policy was first implemented in 2018 by the attorney general at the time, but because it’s a directive rather than a law it could be changed or taken away with a stroke of a pen. Even though Sherrill’s administration supports the policy, making it law would prevent future governors or attorneys general from changing it.

The measure passed the Assembly 50-21 and the Senate by 22-13 along party lines.

But the legislation, which maintains the status quo, stops short of what immigrant rights advocates have called for. An expanded version passed the legislature at the end of last session, but Murphy vetoed it as one of his final actions in office.

The existing policy has survived national court, but Murphy expressed concern that changing the policy could land it back in the courts and risk it all. Sherrill has also expressed concerns about changing the policy by making the same argument, but said after taking office she would sign a law to codify the current policy as-is.

Democrats argued that the current directive has been working, but Republicans disagreed.

Assembly member Gregory Myhre, an Ocean County Republican, said ahead of the vote that he takes issue with restricting local police from inviting ICE to their neighborhoods.

“It’s top down central office management saying ‘you can’t do this, you don’t know what is right for your community,’” he said. “The police may have a very good reason to want ICE to come in.”

Assembly member Balvir Singh, a Burlington County Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, said ahead of the vote that as an immigrant he’s well aware of the anxiety in immigrant communities that anyone could be taken while doing routine tasks like dropping their kids off at school or going to the store.

He told a story of “a group of masked men, supposedly ICE agents,” trying to gain entry to the home of a citizen in his district without a warrant by using deceptive tactics. Those incidents, he said, have stirred distrust between residents and law enforcement, and emphasizes the need to keep law enforcement separate from ICE.

“That kind of fear has consequences. It keeps people from reporting crimes. It keeps witnesses hesitant to come forward. It creates a distance between communities and law enforcement, and that makes all of us less safe,” he said.