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.”
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”
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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