Four of New Jersey’s biggest cities are pushing back against the federal government’s attempt to undo their immigration policies. Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson have asked a federal judge to dismiss a new lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice that challenges their so-called sanctuary policies for undocumented immigrants.
In separate filings this week, attorneys for the cities argued that the case revives legal disputes that were already settled in court several years ago. They say the federal government’s complaint, filed in May of 2025, echoes earlier lawsuits over New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive—a 2018 policy that limits how much local and state law enforcement can assist with federal civil immigration enforcement.
That directive, authored by then–Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, was upheld by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021. Now representing Newark and Hoboken, Grewal wrote in a new brief that local governments “have the sovereign authority to decide whether and to what extent their officials will voluntarily cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts.”
The Trump administration contends that the earlier ruling was wrongly decided and that the surge in illegal immigration since 2021 justifies revisiting the issue. Attorneys for the New Jersey cities countered that the 3rd Circuit’s decision is binding on the current case, and that the Constitution prevents the federal government from forcing local officials to carry out national immigration policies.
Paterson’s lawyers argued that its sanctuary policy “does not obstruct federal law; it merely declines to expend municipal resources on federal civil-immigration enforcement.”
The lawsuit names not only the four cities but also several of their elected leaders. The administration maintains that the sanctuary measures conflict with the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which ensures federal law outweighs local or state regulations. The cities, however, cite the 10th Amendment’s anticommandeering doctrine, which bars the federal government from compelling states or municipalities to enforce federal laws.
Sanctuary policies in Newark and Jersey City have been in place since 2017. Hoboken followed in early 2018, while Paterson’s policy became official in mid-2019 through a local police directive.
City attorneys also noted that even if these orders were rescinded, police departments would still be required to follow the state’s Immigrant Trust Directive. The cities also pointed out that their sanctuary policies don’t prevent local police from working with federal agents to apprehend immigrants accused of crimes. A U.S. District Judge is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.