Alina Habba, the acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, this week announced that her office is investigating Gov. Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin over a directive to local law enforcement to not cooperate with immigration officials.
Earlier this month, New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan issued an internal memo instructing officers not to act on immigration warrants that were recently added to a federal database.
The memo states that accessing these warrants may be a violation of New Jersey's 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive, which was issued by Platkin's predecessor and prohibits state, county, and local law enforcement from acting on administrative warrants like those uploaded to the database without a valid judicial warrant.
A bill that would codify this directive into law is still under consideration by the New Jersey legislature.
Habba, in an interview on Thursday evening, announced that her office will investigate Murphy and Platkin over their approach to immigration.
"And unfortunately, I will announce ... and I want it to be a warning for everybody that I have instructed my office today to open an investigation into Gov. Murphy, to open an investigation into Attorney General Platkin, who was also instructed the state police not to assist any of our federal agencies that are under my direction," she said.
"That will no longer stand. [U.S. 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 continued.
"And 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. And I will come after hard."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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