The New Jersey Act, which prohibits contracts for American immigration centers and customs enforcement, is unconstitutional because the federal government regulates, the Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday.
The third District Court of Appeal was stated that New Jersey adopted the law that “disturbed the basic power of the federal government to enforce immigration law” simply because the state “does not like some of the immigration tools of the federal government.”
Although state and federal law often overlap, the state cannot exceed the line and regulate the way the Federal Government conducts its activities.
“And when he crosses this line, he violates the constitution”, the judge The Stephanos drink wrote. “New Jersey is on the wrong side of this line.”
The 2-1 decision is a victory for a private prison company that filed a lawsuit, Corecivic. The company runs an American Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center in Elizabeth, which until recently was the only immigration stop.
In May, the administration of President Donald Trump opened a 1000-person detention center in Newark, which is served by the Geo Group, a private company that received a 15-year agreement worth $ 1 billion. The arrests increased after establishing the object.
The administration increased immigration enforcement activities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as part of her effort to get Million deported until the end of the year.
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Ryan Gustin, senior public director of Civiccore, said in a statement that the company appreciates the court’s decision.
“For over 40 years, Corecivic has been playing a limited but important role in the American immigration system, which we have performed for every administration – Democrat and Republican, including over 25 years at the Elizabeth detention center,” said Gustin.
Prosecutor General New Jersey Matthew Platkin said in a statement that he was disappointed with a ruling and considering the next steps.
“Maintaining detention for profit -oriented companies is a serious risk to health and safety” Platin said.
In 2023, Corecivic tried to renew the federal agreement, but was blocked by law signed by Governor Phil Murphy two years earlier that public and private entities before concluding contracts to stop immigration. The company has sued and continues to run the facility throughout the dispute.
New Jersey argued during the dispute that his ban does not regulate the federal government, because he imposes a restriction on companies that cannot sell their services, not ice. He also argued that the law does not discriminate against the federal government, because New Jersey also prohibits his own contract correction department with private companies to conduct prisons.
But the Bibas, a former professor of law of the University of Pennsylvania, who was appointed by Trump to the Court of Appeal in 2017, wrote in Most of the majority that the law effectively imposes a ban on the federal government.
The ban on private companies “carries the same sting as the law whose text is clearly concerned with the federal government,” wrote the Bibas.
The federal government intervened in the case and argued with the meaning of Elizabeth Facility, which is located between the international airport of John F. Kennedy and the Newark Liberty International Airport.
Judge Thomas Ambro, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1999, wrote dissatisfaction, arguing that New Jersey’s law does not hinder any federal law.
“If [Congress] It wants the Federal Government to retain the ability to conclude a contract with private companies, it can pass this provisions, “Ambro wrote.
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Groups and immigration activists showed in May outside the Federal Court building in Philadelphia at the Market Street, when the third peripheral panel listened to the arguments in this matter.
After the ruling, Nedia Morsy, director of Make the Road NJ, said in a statement that the ruling “gives the Trump administration a green light to continue the mass deportation program here in Garden.”
“Enabling corporations such as Corecivic and Geogroup – only kilometers from two international airports – for impunity, with low transparency or responsibility, this decision makes New Jersey an epicenter of families of families, kidnapping and disappearance of our loved ones and continues to destabilize our community,” said Morsy.
Other groups, including Aclu-nj AND New Jersey Alliance for Immigration JusticeHe expressed terror with a ruling.
