NJ governor accused of harboring violent illegal criminals, DOJ launches probe
Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced a probe into the state’s Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy this week after he ordered state police not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“[US Attorney General] Pam Bondi has made it clear, and so has our president, that we are to take all criminals, violent criminals and criminals, out of this country and to completely enforce federal law,” Habba told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on his primetime show Thursday.
Habba said the investigation will look at Murphy as well as New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin over alleged instructions to state police not to cooperate with any federal agencies on immigration enforcement.
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Under a 2018 “Immigrant Trust Directive” issued by former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, “voluntary cooperation” between state and local police with federal authorities is limited – ostensibly so that illegals who are the victims of crimes are not afraid to report incidents to police.
While handcuffing state police on immigration enforcement, Platkin has also ordered an investigation into the department led by Obama-appointee Preet Bharara into allegations that they slowed down traffic enforcement after being accused – by Platkin’s office – of racial profiling.
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Murphy and Platkin.
Some other states, cities and police departments around the country have adopted similar measures against assisting with “administrative warrants” for civil violations of immigration law, but say they will fully cooperate with federal authorities on “judicial warrants,” which are issued in active criminal cases.
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However, the Trump administration says it is targeting known criminals for deportation, and not everyone with a criminal history has an active judicial warrant.
On March 26, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents announced the arrest of a convicted Chinese spy a year after his trial. He was serving probation and remained in the U.S. Now he will to be deported, ICE ERO Newark Field Director John Tsoukaris said in a statement.
Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan illegal convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, had multiple run-ins with U.S. law enforcement in at least two states before he murdered her. He had been released from custody at least once before ICE could lodge a detainer request with the NYPD.
Trump campaigned on putting an end to unvetted illegal immigration and deporting known criminals, highlighting cases like Riley’s, Rachel Morin’s and Jocelyn Nungaray’s.
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The suspect in Morin’s rape and murder, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, is currently on trial in Maryland. At the time of her death, he was suspected of another woman’s murder in El Salvador. Before his arrest, he was also accused of raping a California woman and her nine-year-old daughter.
“Anybody who does . . . get in the way of what we are doing — which is not political, it is simply against crime — will be charged in the state of New Jersey for obstruction, for concealment,” Habba told Hannity.