Bill > A4071

Introduced Session

This bill codifies the Attorney General directive "Strengthening Trust Between Law Enforcement and Immigrant Communities. Under the bill, a law enforcement officer is prohibited from engaging in conduct constituting racially-influenced policing. In addition, with certain exceptions, a State, county or municipal law enforcement agency or officer is prohibited from: 1) stopping, questioning, arresting, searching, or detaining any individual based solely on actual or suspected citizenship or immigration status or actual or suspected violations of federal civil immigration law; or 2) inquiring about the immigration status of any individual, unless it is necessary for an ongoing investigation of an indictable offense by that individual and relevant to the offense under investigation. In addition, with certain exceptions, the bill prohibits a State, county, or municipal law enforcement agency or officer from providing certain types of assistance to federal immigration authorities when the sole purpose is to enforce federal civil immigration law. Further, the bill prohibits a State, county, or municipal law enforcement authority from entering into, modifying, renewing, or extending any agreement to exercise federal immigration authority pursuant to Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and from exercising any law enforcement authority pursuant to a preexisting section 287(g) agreement. Under the bill, every State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency is required to establish procedures, which are required to include certain determinations, for processing requests for T-visa certifications and U-visa certifications from potential victims of crime or human trafficking within 120 days of the request being made. Each police department is required to post information regarding its procedures on its Internet website, or if the department does not have an Internet website, on the municipality's Internet website, if feasible. In addition, the bill provides that at a defendant's initial court appearance before a judge, the prosecutor is to confirm that the defendant has been advised on the record that potential charges and convictions may carry immigration consequences and the defendant may have rights to consular notification pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Under the bill, in assessing whether to seek pretrial detention of an arrestee under current law, the prosecutor is to make an individualized assessment based on the specific facts presented in each case and is not to assume that a non-citizen presents a risk of flight. When evidence of the defendant's immigration status is not relevant to the crime charged or to a witness's credibility, it is not to be presented to the jury. In the case where it is relevant and admissible at trial, the prosecutor is not to seek to admit the evidence without first raising the issue with the court outside of the jury's presence and requesting that the court give an appropriate limiting instruction. Further, the bill requires every State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency and official to notify a detained individual, in writing and in a language the individual can understand, when federal civil immigration authorities request to interview the detainee, to be notified of the detainee's upcoming release from custody, or to continue detaining the detainee past the time the detainee would otherwise be eligible for release. Also, under the bill, on an annual basis, each State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency is required to report, in a manner prescribed by the Attorney General, any instances in which the agency provided assistance to federal civil immigration authorities for the purpose of enforcing federal civil immigration law. Municipal and county law enforcement agencies are required to submit a report to the county prosecutor, who is then required to submit a consolidated report to the Attorney General. The New Jersey State Police and all other State law enforcement agencies are required to submit the report to the Attorney General. The Attorney General is to post online a consolidated report detailing all instances of assistance by State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies. Finally, the bill requires the Division of Criminal Justice to develop a training program to explain the requirements of the bill and requires all State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies to provide training to all officers.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Ellen Park (D)*,  Annette Quijano (D)*,  Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)*,  Gabriel Rodriguez (D)*,  Linda Carter (D),  Roy Freiman (D),  Shama Haider (D),  Vincent Kearney (D),  Eliana Pintor Marin (D),  Balvir Singh (D),  Anthony Verrelli (D),  Larry Wainstein (D), 

Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading (on 02/12/2026)

Official Document