Jackson Township Mayor Jennifer Kuhn of New Jersey issued a call on Thursday, September 3, for the state to repeal its sanctuary policy, allowing local police to report undocumented immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when encountered.
Last week, an undocumented immigrant in Jackson Township struck and killed an infant and injured the family while driving in a grocery store parking lot. Kuhn told Fox News that the state’s sanctuary policy should be revoked to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
In an interview, Kuhn stated, “Offering condolences is not enough at this moment. Our leadership must step in and take action. It is unacceptable that police are not allowed to contact ICE when encountering individuals without legal status.”
Authorities stated that on August 28, Guatemalan undocumented immigrant Maria Cobon-Guzman was driving without a license and hit a mother pushing a stroller with her 9-month-old son and 5-year-old daughter in a parking lot of a kosher grocery store in Jackson. The infant died instantly, while the mother and daughter sustained serious injuries.
Kuhn emphasized that this accident underscores the necessity of abolishing the sanctuary policies in New Jersey, which limit cooperation between local, county, and state law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities in most cases.
She said, “Regardless of being an undocumented or legal immigrant, such incidents should not occur. But the issue lies in the fact that under the current sanctuary policy, if they are undocumented, we cannot hold them accountable for violating immigration laws.”
20-year-old Cobon-Guzman has been charged with manslaughter.
Prosecutors have also charged undocumented immigrant Ariadna Lazaro-Flores from Mexico, for allowing Cobon-Guzman to drive her vehicle despite knowing she did not have a driver’s license.
Reports from the detention center indicate that Lazaro-Flores is also charged with endangering the welfare of a person lacking capacity.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as previously informed to Fox News, both women entered the US illegally during the Biden administration. Lazaro-Flores made five illegal entries in October 2023 and was deported each time.
DHS added that Cobon-Guzman entered the US in October 2023, released without a review, and was issued an order of removal by an immigration judge on July 31.
Kuhn particularly criticized New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive (ITD), implemented by former Governor Phil Murphy in 2018. The ITD generally prohibits police from inquiring about someone’s immigration status, notifying ICE upon their release, or sharing certain private information for civil immigration enforcement purposes.
Current Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a bill in March this year formally incorporating the ITD into state law, and in February, signed an executive order preventing ICE agents from using state-owned non-public areas for operations without judicial search warrants.
Kuhn urged the Jackson Township Council to pass a resolution demanding an end to such policies at the state level. She stated, “I know Ocean County and other counties, as well as other towns, are also doing the same thing. This situation needs to change.”
Supporters of the ITD and similar policies argue that they encourage crime victims and witnesses to report crimes without fear of future immigration status scrutiny by law enforcement.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Dan Prochilo, stated in a release that under the ITD, county and state correctional facilities can notify ICE upon the release of someone accused or convicted of certain violent or serious crimes, including assault, stalking, sexual assault, arson, and burglary, and if a suspect has been convicted of a serious crime within the past five years or is under a final order of removal from a federal immigration judge, the state correctional facilities can also inform ICE.
Prochilo added, “Since the implementation of ITD in 2019, New Jersey law enforcement agencies have been issuing such notifications regularly in appropriate circumstances.”
(Reference from Fox News report)