Feds should bring “a good, strong case against a mayor or a governor interfering with ICE operations”
“But the first case they bring has to be a strong case.”
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill has joined the anti-ICE crusade, and is getting the state government involved through a new portal to help people track ICE.
“We are going to be standing up a portal so people can upload all their cell phone videos and alert people. If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out.”
🚨 BREAKING: New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill to Launch a Portal to Track & Report ICE Agents
“We are going to be standing up a portal so people can upload all their cell phone videos and alert people. If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out.” pic.twitter.com/zgpW7JFkOf
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 29, 2026
On X I responded to a tweet about it by Jesse Kelly by saying:
“The Governor of New Jersey may not be legally obligated to help federal immigration enforcement, but she has no right to interfere with it, which is what she is doing on a massive scale. An example needs to be set”
The Governor of New Jersey may not be legally obligated to help federal immigration enforcement, but she has no right to interfere with it, which is what she is doing on a massive scale. An example needs to be set @AGPamBondi @AAGDhillon https://t.co/wQZnndyoPY
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) January 30, 2026
I was then invited on Jesse Kelly Show to discuss my comment, and whether what the governor was doing was legal.
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (auto-generated, may contain transcription errors, lightly edited for transcript clarity).
Kelly (00:33):
That can’t be legal, right? Just for a normal just idiot like me. I look at that stuff and I think, well, there’s no way that can be legal. We should probably ask Bill about that. ’cause he knows a little bit more about it than I do. Joining me now, Cornell Law University professor and founder of Legal Insurrection, my friend Bill Jacobson. All right, Bill, I know you will set me straight as you often do that, that’s rebellion there, sedition, or whatever word you wanna put on it. And it’s not just her, it’s it’s state after state, city after city. That can’t be legal, right?
WAJ (01:06):
Well, I think depends how it’s going to be used. When she first announced it in the context of that show, it seemed pretty clear she was doing that in order to interfere with ICE operations. And if that’s how it’s used, then it would be illegal. State officials do not have the right to interfere in federal affairs or federal immigration enforcement. If it’s merely informational, she played it cute. She’s playing it very cute. She’s trying to say, well, we just want togather information, but everybody knows why they’re doing it.
So I think we have to see how it’s used. If it’s to provide a portal that people can use to evade ICE and to interfere with ICE operations that are in progress, because people are uploading in real time, then I think she has legal liability.
And what I think the federal government needs to do is they need to find a good, strong case against a mayor or a governor interfering with ICE operations. Not merely refusing to cooperate, but interfering and bring that. But the first case they bring has to be a strong case.
This one with New Jersey, I think she’s playing cute deliberately. We have to see how it’s actually implemented….
WAJ (03:55):
If this is merely, as she’s suggesting on legal advice, probably, an information gathering tool, she’s probably okay. But the second people start using that portal to block ICE cars, to attack ICE agents, then I think the government, federal government needs to look into it.
Because you’re absolutely right. This is a rebellion. This is a rebellion that’s taking place, of course, in blue cities and blue states where they are rejecting the authority of the federal government… So this is a full on rebellion. This is borderline true insurrection. Let’s see if any of these mayors or governors actually take that last step and physically try to block ICE because when they do that, federal DOJ needs to be in place to move quickly, legally.
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“We are going to be standing up a portal so people can upload all their cell phone videos and alert people. If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out.”
Sounds like interference to me. But I guess she has to actually do it before it can be considered illegal.
Everyone pro-ICE should get their phone out and flood their portal with videos of democrats and illegals. Let’s give ICE a little hand by pointing them where they can pick up an illegal or three.
Download videos of ICE operations in other locales, then upload those vids as evidence of local ICE operations.
She has to be a Republican before it’s considered illegal.
Even once she actually does it, it’s still not interference. It’s just publishing information, which the first amendment protects. The fact that the information will be used by some people to commit crimes doesn’t make her a criminal.
Now if she were caught directly coordinating with those committing the crimes, that would be a criminal conspiracy. But merely providing information that she knows will be useful to them is not a conspiracy.
Disagree. Aiding and abetting.
It is first-amendment protected speech. It literally cannot be illegal. If you misconstrue some statute so as to make it appear to ban this portal, then that statute automatically becomes invalid, so you have achieved nothing.
She, her governmental authority, is literally providing the vehicle which enables the crime to take place.
Sure smells like an accomplice to the crime to me.
She is providing information. What people do with that information is not her problem. She can’t be an accomplice with someone she’s never met, never spoken to, doesn’t even know the name of.
I am not going to agree or disagree with Milhouse’s analysis.
Even if the legal grounds are solid, and even if there is overwhelming evidence of guilt,
The jury pool in that Federal district is extremely heavily weight to woke leftist, that you would never get a conviction.
Think the opposite of Derek Chavin
Think of Hillary Clinton conviction probability in either DC or NYC
er
Don’t forget sheriffs, police chiefs, DAs, and AGs. Make an example of all of them. If necessary goad them over the line they are trying to walk. I lost patience with this crap long ago.
Don’t forget anti-ice Jackson — Ketanji Brown that is, the Apex of Impartiality.
As Milhouse says, this is just providing information to the people. If some of the people then abuse the information (to commit actual crimes, such as “obstruction of justice”), then the responsible thing for the governor to do would be to take the site down. What are the chances a Dem gov will respond responsibly?
Sure. She’ll take it down, after it’s been scraped and cloned by Arabella.
Yes, the responsible thing would be to do that, but she has no legal duty to be responsible. I’m sure she knows very well what uses the information will be put to, but legally that’s not her problem. A newspaper has the right to publish the news even if it knows and intends that some people will misuse that information.
There’s that problem that the first case has to be a strong one. I’m hoping (but not expecting) that that’s why they haven’t brought one yet. It takes time to build a really good case.
Unfortunately, it also takes time to really bury one.
Flood the site with AI images or cartoons. Put in more nonsense than the leftists are capable of handling.
Best way to get rid of a site is to make it useless.
Meh. This kind thing is gonna annoy enough Indy and normie folks that when the worm turns and it will that most won’t bat an eye. These goofy resistance minded idiots cosplay at insurrection is like summoning ‘Beatlejuice’ except that instead of Beatlejuice they gonna summon Pinochet. No whining about ‘norms’ or legal niceties when it happens.
I hope you’re correct, but I’m afraid the Dems will win the midterms, and then Congress will be fighting on the side of the sanctuary cities.
IMO, the only way the d/prog win the midterms is if center/right voters especially the casual voters stay home. To be sure there’s a possibility the d/prog take advantage of the 25-30 retirements from the HoR by GoP to win some seats without incumbents but the d/prog have nearly as many retirements to worry about.
The GoP has a huge fundraising advantage (for now); they have a net of $80 million ish on hand while the d/prog have a net negative balance of $5 million ish. Gerrymandering has already made most CD virtually a lock for each political party. Outside of a true wave election there’s usually only about 25-30 CD that are actually in play.
The d/prog and their legacy/corporate media allies will and are desperately trying to turn this year’s midterm into a National referendum on ICE and ‘affordability’. The problem they have is that most of the reasons for the very real lack of affordability in health care/IN, housing/rent which are the chief complaints were a.direct result of goofy d/prog policies. As are the complaints about interior immigration enforcement, without decades of a blind eye to illegal aliens living in the interior by local politicians, open borders shoving in 10 million+ just during Biden’s term there wouldn’t be a need for interior enforcement b/c they’d have been stopped at the border or deported after their first minor encounter with local LEO. The brazen refusal in MN to turn over criminal aliens to ICE in the safety of local jails highlights their continued policy errors. Same for allowing an anti ICE militia to organize, patrol/stalk, harass and impede ICE….add in the establishment of ‘checkpoints’ blocking streets and restricting the movement of ordinary Citizens and IMO a quiet backlash is building. Social media/alt media has broken the stranglehold on PR/narrative the d/prog
used to enjoy when there were only 3 networks.
By disclosing information about whereabouts she could be aiding and abetting federal fugitives. If that gets provable in court, I think she’d be toast.
No, that cannot be aiding and abetting. It’s protected speech. If it were so considered, the only result would be that the law against aiding and abetting would become unconstitutional and unenforceable. But courts have a duty to interpret a law so as not to be unconstitutional, if they can, and they do that by saying it doesn’t apply to such cases.
If they can find such a case then of course they should bring it. But I don’t believe they can find one. These mayors and governors are playing it smart, and not breaking the law.
What Sherill is doing is completely legal. I disagree with your tweet that “The Governor of New Jersey may not be legally obligated to help federal immigration enforcement, but she has no right to interfere with it, which is what she is doing on a massive scale.”
In fact you yourself seem to have backed away from that position, in the interview. You agree that gathering information is legal. But you still seem to think that if people use it to commit crimes then the governor is somehow liable for that, and I think you’re wrong. The first amendment protects her right to set up this portal to collect and publish information, and what people do with that information is up to them. She can’t be held liable for their choices.
If her intent mattered, which I don’t think it does, she could always claim that she intends the information to be used only for people to show up where ICE is operating and protest peacefully, which of course they have every right to do. You can’t possibly prove that she intends it to be used to commit crimes.
But I believe that even if you could somehow prove that she intends for the information to be used to commit crimes, it still wouldn’t be her problem, any more than it’s a newspaper’s problem what use people will make of the news it reports.
But again, if the government ever does come across a mayor or governor who is so stupid as to cross the line, by all means throw the entire library at that person. Arrest them in public, and hold a show trial, because that would be outright insurrection. As it is what’s happening is an insurrection, but the mayors and governors are being smart and keeping their own hands clean while others do the dirty work.
It used to be the case that when politicians were screwing the citizens and couldn’t be touched by the law, the citizens tarred and feathered those politicians. It’s frustrating to hear that the dirty scum can’t be touched by the law because they are encouraging useful idiots to commit crimes while keeping their own hands “clean.”
When was that ever the case? I don’t believe there has ever been a time when people could do that and get away with it, unless it was a KKK town and an honest judge or prosecutor tried to actually be fair to a black person.
Absolutely. The first Gov or Mayor who winds up getting arrested needs to have an absolutely cast-iron case against them. Something that even deluded leftists who can’t face reality will admit “Yeah…that’s wrong.” Otherwise, that first arrest will turn into St. George Floyd II, He Who Is Being Persecuted By The Evil Orange One and Who Has a Defense Fund Here Please Donate. The longer it takes to make that arrest, the more posturing and preening from the narcissists of the Left, the more incriminating statements they make, and the more Dem voters who start saying “Wait a minute. We should believe what??”
“Something that even deluded leftists who can’t face reality will admit “Yeah…that’s wrong.””
This cannot happen in the real world. Leftists *never* admit they are wrong. Old Lenny Bruce joke on adultery: “Deny everything, even if they have pictures deny it!” That is the leftist mentality.
Sherrill, Spanberger, Waltz, Newscum, Haley are sticking a middle finger to the President and normal Americans. They are trying to goad the President and Republicans to give them a “summer of love” beyond the deaths in Minnesota. They want the nutcases in their base to rampage and cause death and injuries to Federal agents. They want to provoke a violent response from the Federal agents / government. They would like nothing better than a conservative concealed carry person to open fire and cause multiple injuries and deaths while defending themself from a mob. That’s why you see these people setting up check points to review license plates and ask for ID. That is a violation of my right to free passage. A state failing to maintain civil order and upholding the rights of citizens is a failed state. I would think that’s where the federal government should start.
“Healey”?
Assume for the moment we can get past Lawyer Milhouse and his objections (all stated in his usual bonhomie). We have a practical problem:
Most of the governors and mayors who are the most obstreperous are in blue states, exactly where jurors will be less likely to convict them.
The elected blue activists in red states play an even more careful game, being sure to limit themselves to “spreading information”, precisely because they know they’d be convicted if they crossed the line. Witness the mayor blue Memphis in red Tennessee — why, he was downright cooperative, wasn’t he? He knew where the line was in his state.
I live in Illinois. Good luck getting a black politician in Chicago convicted of obstructing ICE. Won’t happen.
Three comments.
First, let’s be clear: A has a right to be an ICE Agent. B has a right to publicize that a is an ICE Agent and to let the world know where a lives (unless and until Congress passes a law prohibiting that, which might be constitutional as with federal judges’ addresses). C has a right to protest in front of A’s house (subject to reasonable time & place restrictions). And D has a right to refuse to do business with C and his company. But as Justice Robert Jackson said, not everything that you have a right to do is right to do.
Second, I believe that it was Justice Scalia who said that there is a First Amendment right to advocate that someone engage in criminal behavior.
Third, the line between not cooperating with federal law enforcement and thwarting federal law enforcement is a hard one to define because it’s never really been tested to this degree before.
Not even in the 1950s-60s civil rights era in the south when technology that we have now was not available. But no, matter how strong a case could be made against a particular governor or mayor, the mainstream media are going to whip up independents into a frenzy to throw the Republicans out if anyone is arrested. The Administration is more likely to use other tools like grant impoundment.
Goes nowhere, like the non-existent cases against Frey and Walz.
Wrongful death cases have been brought against and successfully won by families etc of those who were encouraged/ talked into..suicides
goode n pretti both were encouraged to do wrong and while they are solely responsible for their own actions those who encouraged their suicides by cop,,, should be brought up on charges
Such cases have only ever been won, and are only winnable, when the defendant directly instructed the victim to kill himself, and to do so immediately. No one directly told Pretti to commit his crime when he did it, and the only person who told Good to do so was her partner. The people who formed Good’s and Pretti’s ideas and convictions can’t be held liable in any way. Advocacy of literally any position whatsoever is protected by the first amendment.
Not holding my breath this DOJ will act. I hope I’m wrong…
DEFINITELY!!! No ICE, no fed funding at all.
the computer your typing on is stolen from others
hurry give it back
not to mention the place you live in
and your stolen clothes/fabrics
Leaving aside the arguments over what does and does not constitute “interference” with ICE [or other government] operations; let’s look at the society and culture we live in. What are the odds of getting a sufficiency of elected/appointed government officials and bureaucrats to enforce the law against other elected/appointed government officials and bureaucrats?
In the end, politics is the exercise of power, and today bloody few elected/appointed officials and bureaucrats are willing to take any action that might in the future limit their own exercise of power.
Subotai Bahadur
Intelligence agents need to infiltrate these state govs and find out if they are really just ‘providing information. ‘.
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