New Jersey Codifies Its Immigrant Trust Laws Limiting Local Police Cooperation with ICE

Status: In effect now — New Jersey Immigrant Trust package (A4071/S3521 Immigrant Trust Act; A4070/S3522 Privacy Protection Act; S3114/S3216 law-enforcement identification act) (N.J. A4071/S3521 (P.L.2026, c.5); A4070/S3522 (P.L.2026, c.4); SCS S3114/S3216 (P.L.2026, c.3))

On March 25, 2026, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a three-bill package into law that writes the state's "sanctuary" policies into permanent statute. The centerpiece, the Immigrant Trust Act (A4071/S3521, P.L.2026, c.5), codifies the 2018 Attorney General "Immigrant Trust Directive" and took effect immediately. It bars state, county, and municipal law enforcement from: entering, modifying, renewing, or acting under 287(g) agreements that deputize local officers to enforce immigration law; stopping, questioning, arresting, searching, or detaining anyone based solely on suspected citizenship or immigration status; asking about immigration status unless necessary to an ongoing investigation of an indictable offense; giving ICE access to non-public law enforcement equipment, office space, databases, or property; and holding someone past their scheduled release date based solely on a civil immigration detainer (with an exception for people charged with or convicted of certain violent or serious offenses). It also requires jails to give a detained person written notice, in a language they understand, when immigration authorities request an interview or release notification. The companion Privacy Protection Act (A4070/S3522, P.L.2026, c.4) limits when state and local agencies and health care facilities may collect, retain, and share personal information such as immigration or citizenship status, and a third law (SCS S3114/S3216, P.L.2026, c.3) generally bars law enforcement officers from concealing their faces during certain public interactions and requires them to show identification before an arrest or detention. Because these are enacted state laws (not court orders), no litigation is currently staying them; New Jersey became the tenth state to bar local participation in ICE's 287(g) program.

Next step: Watch for the Attorney General's implementing guidance and the county-prosecutor public-education reports required within 120 days of enactment, and for any federal court challenge to the new statutes, as the U.S. Department of Justice has sued other states over similar "sanctuary" laws.

Verified against the primary source as of 2026-07-25 — status can change with a single court ruling. Official source.

What’s happening

On March 25, 2026, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a three-bill package into law that writes the state’s “sanctuary” policies into permanent statute. The centerpiece, the Immigrant Trust Act (A4071/S3521, P.L.2026, c.5), codifies the 2018 Attorney General “Immigrant Trust Directive” and took effect immediately. It bars state, county, and municipal law enforcement from: entering, modifying, renewing, or acting under 287(g) agreements that deputize local officers to enforce immigration law; stopping, questioning, arresting, searching, or detaining anyone based solely on suspected citizenship or immigration status; asking about immigration status unless necessary to an ongoing investigation of an indictable offense; giving ICE access to non-public law enforcement equipment, office space, databases, or property; and holding someone past their scheduled release date based solely on a civil immigration detainer (with an exception for people charged with or convicted of certain violent or serious offenses). It also requires jails to give a detained person written notice, in a language they understand, when immigration authorities request an interview or release notification. The companion Privacy Protection Act (A4070/S3522, P.L.2026, c.4) limits when state and local agencies and health care facilities may collect, retain, and share personal information such as immigration or citizenship status, and a third law (SCS S3114/S3216, P.L.2026, c.3) generally bars law enforcement officers from concealing their faces during certain public interactions and requires them to show identification before an arrest or detention. Because these are enacted state laws (not court orders), no litigation is currently staying them; New Jersey became the tenth state to bar local participation in ICE’s 287(g) program.

Who it affects

Immigrants living in New Jersey and their families during encounters with state, county, and municipal police, sheriffs, jails, and prosecutors — not with federal agents. The laws limit how far New Jersey’s own officers may go in helping ICE: they generally may not ask about immigration status without a criminal-investigation reason, hold someone extra time for ICE on a civil detainer alone, or give ICE non-public access to local databases and facilities, and they may not join the 287(g) program. Federal immigration enforcement itself is unchanged — ICE and CBP still operate in New Jersey under federal law, and the statutes include carve-outs (for example, for people charged with or convicted of certain serious offenses and, under the enacted amendments, notice in some final-removal-order situations). This is general information about what the statutes do, not legal advice about any individual case.

How it got here

  1. Nov 29, 2018 New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issues the Immigrant Trust Directive (Law Enforcement Directive 2018-6), an administrative policy limiting how state and local police may assist federal civil immigration enforcement.
  2. Sep 27, 2019 The Attorney General updates the directive (version 2.0), clarifying its limits on local cooperation with ICE; because it remained an administrative directive, a future administration could rescind it — the reason advocates pushed to codify it.
  3. Mar 23, 2026 By late March 2026, the New Jersey Legislature has passed the three-bill package after amendments that narrowed some provisions, including detainer and information-sharing exceptions.
  4. Mar 25, 2026 Governor Mikie Sherrill signs the package into law in Newark: the Immigrant Trust Act (P.L.2026, c.5), the Privacy Protection Act (c.4), and the law-enforcement identification/anti-mask act (c.3). The Immigrant Trust Act takes effect immediately, making New Jersey the tenth state to bar local 287(g) participation.

What to watch next

Watch for the Attorney General’s implementing guidance and the county-prosecutor public-education reports required within 120 days of enactment, and for any federal court challenge to the new statutes, as the U.S. Department of Justice has sued other states over similar “sanctuary” laws.

Official sources

This page is general information about ongoing litigation, not legal advice. A case’s status can change with a single ruling, and outcomes can turn on facts specific to each person. For advice on a specific situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative.