Gov. Phil Murphy said one of the bills would have attracted judicial scrutiny and the other might have conflicted with federal law. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)
Gov. Phil Murphy, who made protecting immigrants a pillar of his first campaign for governor, used some of his final hours in office Tuesday to veto two sweeping bills designed to expand migrant rights.
The bills left unsigned would have written the attorney general’s 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive into law — the order restricts when local, county, and state police can aid federal immigration agents — and created new safeguards for sensitive personal data provided by New Jerseyans to hospitals, schools, and libraries can be shared.
Murphy, a Democrat who is leaving office at noon Tuesday after two terms as governor, said the codification bill had significant differences from the directive that made him fear it would attract renewed judicial scrutiny. The directive has stood up in court, including at the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, he noted.
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“I am extremely concerned that signing this bill, which differs from the Immigrant Trust Directive, would open New Jersey up to a new court challenge and renewed judicial scrutiny from judges who may not render the same decision upholding these critical protections,” Murphy said. “Renewed litigation would also put our time-tested Immigrant Trust Directive at risk, endangering hundreds of thousands of immigrants in New Jersey in one fell swoop. I cannot in good conscience allow that to happen.”
Murphy added that while he supported the data privacy protection bill — he conditionally vetoed the measure after a voting session last week and sent it back to the Legislature for amendments that lawmakers then hastily agreed to — his team “discovered a drafting oversight that could create significant complications.” Because a new legislative session has started since the bill passed the Legislature, it’s too late to seek new changes to the measure.
“The bill as written could be construed to conflict with federal law and, if signed, could jeopardize billions of dollars in federal funding for critical programs that serve the people of New Jersey,” said Murphy. “I deeply wish there was sufficient time left to correct this issue, but it is not possible due to the expiration of the legislative session. Therefore, the only responsible option is to decline to act on the bill at this time.”
Immigrant advocates blasted Murphy for vetoing bills they said would provide vital protections for migrants amid a time of aggressive enforcement by the Trump administration. They have warned that a future attorney general could withdraw the directive at any moment.
The vetoes are known as pocket vetoes, meaning they aren’t being sent to the Legislature for a potential override because they were passed in the final days of a legislative session.
Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D), who becomes governor at noon, declined to say on the campaign trail whether she would support legislation codifying the policy, but she did express fear, like Murphy did Tuesday, that codifying the 2018 directive would open the state up to new lawsuits.
Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which supported the bills, said he is “deeply disappointed” with Murphy declining to sign two of them.
“In failing to sign these bills, Governor Murphy has left New Jersey without critical protections at a moment when ICE is brutalizing our communities. These bills were legally sound, politically viable, and commonsense policy. We call on Governor-elect Sherrill, her administration, and the Legislature to establish data privacy protections and ensure state and local resources are not commandeered for federal immigration enforcement – we have no time to waste,” Sinha said in a statement.
In his two terms at the helm of the state, Murphy was lauded as an ally to immigrants in New Jersey and worked closely with immigrant-focused organizations. He signed landmark bills greenlighting driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, offering pandemic relief dollars to migrants who weren’t eligible for federal aid, and expanding in-state tuition to include undocumented college students.
In New Jersey, 1 in 4 residents is an immigrant, and more than 500,000 residents are estimated to be undocumented.
The two bills Murphy declined to sign were part of a three-bill package introduced earlier this month. Murphy signed the third, which requires the Attorney General’s Office to designate specific locations where immigration enforcement will be barred.
Murphy said he’s hopeful the Legislature will reintroduce the data privacy bill and pass an amended version“so it can be signed into law at the soonest opportunity.”
The three bills were introduced, advanced in committee, and approved by the Legislature in the final weeks of its last legislative session. They faced staunch Republican opposition.
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) told reporters last week that he believed the governor would sign the bills, “and that’ll be the law.”
Coughlin said Tuesday he is “disappointed” about the two vetoed bills.
“We respect Governor Murphy’s record of protecting personal freedoms and all we have accomplished together over eight years. We are happy to see the ‘Safe Communities Act’ get signed, which will ensure that all New Jerseyans can safely enter schools, hospitals, courthouses, houses of worship and other public institutions,” he said in a statement.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) did not respond to a request for comment.
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