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.
NEWARK MAYOR UNDER FIRE FOR TRYING TO HALT REOPENING OF ICE FACILITY
Alina Habba speaks after being sworn in as interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on March 28, 2025.(Pool File via AP)
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.
OBAMA-ERA PROSECUTOR’S PROBE INTO BLUE STATE POLICE RACIAL BIAS CLAIMS CALLED ‘UNTENABLE’ FOR TROOPERS
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature at the statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., Jan. 9, 2024.(AP)
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.
YOUNG MIGRANTS TIED TO ‘SHOCKING’ INCREASE IN GANG CRIME IN NYC
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, with then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaks during a press conference in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024.(MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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.
Federal agents in New Jersey arrest a Turkish citizen wanted for murder in his home country on March 6, 2025. (FBI)
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.
VIDEO SHOWS ‘NEIGHBORHOOD PEOPLE’ TAKE DOWN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF RAPING 13-YEAR-OLD AT KNIFEPOINT
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.
Jose Ibarra appears at his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga.(Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
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.
