New Jersey lawmakers introduced a bill this week that could bar some U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel from ever holding public jobs in the state.
The measures are part of a broader legislative package put together by lawmakers unhappy about recent ICE operations near the Hoboken–Jersey City border.
- A bill, A4302, that would disqualify ICE agents and officers who served between Sept. 1, 2025, and Jan. 20, 2029, from getting a public job in New Jersey in the future. They would be banned from becoming state or local government employees, including law enforcement officers and public school teachers.
- A bill, A4300, that would impose a 50% tax on the gross receipts of private detention facilities operating under government contracts. The money would be directed to a new Immigrant Protection Fund.
- A bill, A4301, that would make it a criminal offense for anyone — including federal ICE officers — to block state, county or municipal law enforcement from accessing crime scenes or evidence.
ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the legislation.
Lawmakers said the bill blocking ICE agents from getting public jobs in New Jersey is intended to prevent individuals involved in what they described as civil‑rights violations from transitioning into public roles after leaving the agency.
Lawmakers said the proposed employment ban would apply to agents who worked for ICE after Sept. 1. That is when ICE initiated new, aggressive enforcement campaigns in Democratic‑led cities, including Chicago and Minneapolis.
The bill would lift the employment ban for ICE agents hired after January 2029, corresponding to the date when the Trump administration is scheduled to end.
The proposal is one of three bills announced by state Assembly members Ravi Bhalla, D‑Hudson, and Katie Brennan, D‑Hudson. They partnered with Assemblywomen Annette Quijano, D‑Union, and Alixon Collazos‑Gill, D‑Essex. Lawmakers said state Sen. Raj Mukherji, D‑Hudson, will introduce the companion bills in the Senate.
“We can’t sit back and do nothing while they violate people’s constitutional rights,” Brennan said.
The legislation must be approved by both the state Assembly and the state Senate and be signed by the governor to become law.
Sponsors say the bills are a direct response to what they view as escalating enforcement tactics by ICE across the state, including warrantless operations, agents in unmarked vehicles and the agency’s targeting of residents outside workplaces and schools.
“The stakes are even higher now, and it is incumbent on all of us to use the power we have to keep our residents safe,” Bhalla said.
Quijano said the package of proposed laws reinforces protections for civil liberties.
“No one is above the law, but everyone, including immigrants, deserves due process, fairness and the chance to work toward the American dream,” she said.
Quijano is also involved in advancing a separate trio of bills aimed at limiting cooperation with ICE in New Jersey. One bill would turn New Jersey’s policy of limiting how local and state police can help ICE into a permanent law. Another bill would restrict what data agencies may share with ICE and a third bill would prohibit the use of masks by ICE agents and other law enforcement officers.
Collazos‑Gill said that recent detentions by ICE resulted in intimidation.
“When masked agents in unmarked vehicles detain people without clear identification or transparency, that erodes trust and undermines the very principles our constitution is built on,” she said.
Mukherji said ICE lacks oversight.
“As ICE targets far‑right extremists for recruitment and continues to sow seeds of chaos throughout the country … states are forced to take action to ensure these rogue personnel are bound to the law and held accountable,” he said.
