Immigrant Trust Directive
NJ Law Enforcement Officer Resource Guide
Dos and Don’ ts for New Jersey Law Enforcement Officers
The Immigrant Trust Directive, first issued in 2018, helps protect public safety, which is law enforcement’ s core mission. The directive has, for over six years, allowed state and local officials to work with federal authorities to remove violent criminals from this country, while otherwise ensuring that individuals who are victims or witnesses to a crime can safely come forward to New Jersey law enforcement officials, regardless of their immigration status. It allows New Jersey law enforcement to properly focus on preventing violent crime. It is also settled law. Federal and local officials challenged it years ago, and their claims were thoroughly rejected, by judges across the ideological spectrum up through the Third Circuit. The Directive has been helping foster trust between immigrant residents and law enforcement in our state for years.
DO
Under the Immigrant Trust Directive, officers MUST:
■ Continue to enforce New Jersey’ s criminal law regardless of the immigration status of any target or defendant.
■ Comply with judicial warrants issued by federal or state judges.
■ Assist federal immigration authorities in response to exigent circumstances.
■ In response to an operational deconfliction check, provide federal immigration officials with relevant safety information when necessary to protect human life / officer safety.
■ Notify a detainee( using the forms provided by the AG) when federal civil immigration authorities request to:
■ Interview them;
■ Be notified when they are released; or
■ Continue detaining them past when they would otherwise be eligible for release.
■ Agencies are required to develop procedures to assist victims and witnesses applying for T-Visas and U-Visas, which provide special immigration status for those cooperating with law enforcement investigations.
1. Violent or serious offense is defined in the Directive, Appendix A, as any first or second-degree offense, any indictable domestic violence offense( including any domestic violence assault) assault, knowingly leaving scene of accident involving serious bodily injury, stalking, throwing bodily fluid at officers, criminal sexual contact, exposing genitals to minors, bias intimidation, arson, causing widespread injury, burglary of dwelling, endangering welfare of children, witness tampering, eluding, hindering apprehension, criminal contempt, manufacture / transportation / possession of weapons, aggravated hazing, and any indicatable / felony offense in any jurisdiction that is substantially equivalent to any of the above offenses.
For more information visit: nj. gov / trust
DON’ T
Under the Immigrant Trust Directive, officers MUST NOT:
■ Ask about the immigration status of any person unless necessary to the ongoing investigation of an indictable offense and relevant to the offense under investigation.
■ Assist with the execution of immigration administrative warrants issued by federal immigration officers( see pg. 2 for examples).
■ Stop, question, arrest, search, or detain any person solely based on their actual or suspected immigration status, or any actual or suspected violation of federal civil immigration law.
■ Assist federal immigration authorities when the sole purpose is to enforce federal civil immigration law, including
■ Participating in civil immigration enforcement operations.
■ Providing any non-public personally identifying information.
■ Providing access to any state, county, or local law enforcement equipment, office space, database, or property not available to the general public.
■ Providing access to a detainee for an interview unless the detainee signs a detailed written consent form.
■ Detain a person based solely on a civil immigration detainer request or provide notice of a detained individual’ s upcoming release from custody, unless the detainee
■ Is charged with or has ever been convicted, adjudicated delinquent, or found not guilty by
reason of insanity of a violent or serious offense. 1
■ Has been convicted of an indictable crime in the past five years.
■ Is subject to a Final Order of Removal that has bee signed by a federal judge and lodged with the jail or prison where the detainee is being held.
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