TRENTON, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy’s latest move to hamstring New Jersey’s law enforcement is nothing short of a public safety crisis in the making.
A leaked email from New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan, dated March 24, has exposed the dangerous reality of the governor’s Immigrant Trust Directive: a direct order to state troopers to ignore federal arrest warrants tied to immigration status.
Yes, to ignore federal arrests warrants of violent criminals. He also prohibits local jails from honoring ICE detainers for those same violent criminals.
So now, federal agents, as ICE Director Tom Homan repeatedly says will be forced to bring armed units into our neighborhoods, in search of these violent offenders living among us in the New Jersey sanctuary state.
This isn’t just bureaucratic meddling—it’s a reckless “hands off” policy that jeopardizes New Jersey communities, undermines our local police, and leaves our nation’s brave federal agents scrambling in the dark.
The email, which surfaced in early April, lays it bare.
Callahan instructed NJSP personnel not to arrest individuals based solely on “outstanding administrative warrants” for removal—civil orders issued by federal immigration authorities.
He even cautioned troopers to scrutinize warrant wording to ensure compliance with the state directive, which bars them from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in such cases.
This isn’t a minor clarification; it’s a gag order on cooperation, spotlighted just as the National Crime Information Center added 27,000 such warrants to its database.
The administration’s response? Double down. Attorney General Matt Platkin defends this as a focus on “violent crime,” claiming there’s no sanctuary for criminals in New Jersey.
Tell that to the troopers forced to let suspects walk because their hands are tied by red tape. Tell that to the women, families and children victimized by repeat offenders who are consistently set free in New Jersey.
This directive doesn’t just weaken our state’s security—it betrays the very people we rely on to keep us safe. Local police, already stretched thin across New Jersey’s 564 municipalities, depend on federal partnerships to tackle threats that don’t stop at town lines: drug trafficking poisoning our kids, human smuggling exploiting our highways, gang violence spilling across borders.
When troopers can’t flag a suspect to ICE or hold them on a federal warrant, those threats fester.
Communities suffer as offenders slip through cracks the policy pries open. Our local officers lose the backup they need to confront dangers bigger than their beat.
And our federal agents—tasked with deporting threats like MS-13 members or fentanyl pushers—are left blind, cut off from the street-level intel only New Jersey cops can provide.
The stakes are real, and the evidence is damning. Joint federal-local operations have crushed cartels in Newark, seized lethal drugs in Camden, and thwarted terror plots in Jersey City.
Where cooperation thrives, crime drops—sometimes by double digits.
But your directive, Governor, risks turning New Jersey into a case study of the opposite.
Critics, including GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, have seized on the leaked email, calling it proof of a “sanctuary state” mindset that handcuffs law enforcement.
Even U.S. Attorney Alina Habba has fired back, vowing on April 8 that federal orders “will be followed and enforced” despite your interference.
The clash is escalating, and New Jerseyans are caught in the middle.
This isn’t about politics—it’s about survival.
The directive, now laid bare by that leaked NJSP email, isn’t protecting anyone except the criminals who exploit it.
Our communities deserve better than porous borders and paralyzed police. Our local officers deserve support, not shackles. Our federal agents deserve partners, not roadblocks. Scrap this policy before the damage deepens. New Jersey can’t afford your experiment in division—not now, not ever.
Phil Stilton / Editor – Shore News Network