Republican Atlantic County Commissioners Still OK With “Sanctuary” For Illegals!

Since 2018, New Jersey has been one of eleven “sanctuary states” that refuse to enforce federal immigration laws.

Last September, Dennis Levinson, Atlantic County’s Republican County Executive sent the Board of County Commissioners a resolution requesting that the New Jersey Legislature rescind that “sanctuary” status. This was after President Biden proposed housing 60,000 “migrants” at the Atlantic City International Airport last August.

Levinson had good reason to believe this resolution would be quickly and easily approved. Seven of the nine commissioners of Atlantic County government are Republicans. Last September 1, more than 20 elected officials of both political parties publicly opposed Biden’s proposal. Until the October 3 meeting, not one county commissioner, Republican or Democrat, contacted Levinson to express opposition or concern.

Republican County Commissioner Jim Bertino introduced Levinson’s resolution at the commissioner meeting of October 3.  However, not one other Republican commissioner offered a second.  The resolution failed, without any discussion or debate.

Click here for link to our previous 10/6/2023 post on this. Except for Levinson & Bertino, No Atlantic County Republicans Publicly Oppose ‘Sanctuary’ For Illegals – Liberty and Prosperity

After receiving much criticism, several Republican commissioners apologized for the “misunderstanding”. They promised to correct it at their next meeting on October 17.  However, they instead introduced and approved a different resolution that made things even worse!

On November 13, 2018, New Jersey became a “Sanctuary State”.  That was when Governor Murphy’s Attorney General, Gerbir Grewal, issued a “Guideline Directive to all state, county, and local law enforcement officers in New Jersey. In told them they were to violate their Constitutional oaths, and not to anything to enforce federal immigration laws. That included cooperating with federal immigration officers to question, detain, and deport foreigners living illegally in New Jersey.

This was in blatant violation of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution which states:

“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof. . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land, and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. . .  All executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this Constitution. . .

The “Sanctuary State” Order of Attorney General Grewal specifically provided that no state, county, or local government law enforcement agencies were allowed to:

  1. Stop, question, arrest, search, or detain anyone in violation of U.S. immigration laws.
  2. Ask anybody about his or her immigration status.
  3. Participate in immigration enforcement operations.
  4. Provide “non-public personally identifying information” to federal immigration authorities.
  5. Provide access to non-public office space, equipment, databases or property to federal immigration authorities.
  6. Allow federal immigration authorities to interview anyone in custody, unless the sign a written form waiving their rights.
  7. Notify federal immigration authorities of the upcoming release of a prisoner, unless they are charged with or convicted of a “violent serious offense” or another felony within 5 years.
  8. Hold anyone on a federal immigration detainer, unless they are charged with a “violent serious offense”.
  9. No state, federal or local law enforcement officials may enroll in the 287g program to cooperate with federal officials to enforce immigration laws.

This is exactly what 11 Confederate States did in 1861 to defy the Federal government after Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Because New Jersey was one of only 11 “Sanctuary States” in America, many illegal immigrants moved here.  Because New Jersey has a large number of illegal immigrants, President Biden proposed to house 60,000 “asylum seekers” at the Atlantic City International Airport last August.

There was much anger and criticism of the Republican Country Commissioners for failing to adopt that resolution.  As a result, they promised to re-introduce adopt the resolution two weeks later at their meeting of October 17.  However, they did not do so. They instead introduced a new resolution that did NOT oppose Governor Murphy’s policies making New Jersey a “Sanctuary State”.

The second resolution #585 appears at the bottom of the “Public Packet” for the October 17, 2023 meeting of the Atlantic County Commissioners.  Click here for the link:  10-17-23 Public Packet A.pdf (atlantic-county.org)

Adopting this second resolution is even worse than doing nothing about Governor Murphy making New Jersey a “sanctuary” for foreigners illegally in America. This second resolution #585:

  1. Falsely denies that New Jersey is a “sanctuary state”. (Even the most radical “sanctuary” states allow law enforcement to arrest and prosecute illegals when they commit other crimes.)
  2. Does not oppose open borders or failure to enforce existing immigration laws. It only complains that the federal government has “no plan or effective policy to create humane conditions for people crossing the border” or money to pay for them.
  3. States that “the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners continues to support any and all people that continue to follow the United States system of immigration in their pursuit of achieving the American Dream”.

Above Video:  “Some People Did Something”.  Are immigrants like Ilhan Omar coming to America to “achieve the American Dream”?  Or to make America as poor, violent, ignorant, and hateful as the socialist and militant Islamic countries they left?

This is the second time Atlantic County’s Republican commissioners failed to support most residents on a key issue.  Last February, those same commissioners failed to adopt a resolution calling for a “moratorium” on ocean wind turbines.

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  • Seth Grossman

    Seth Grossman is executive director of Liberty And Prosperity, which he co-founded in 2003. It promotes American liberty and limited constitutional government through weekly radio and in-person discussions, its website, email newsletters and various events. Seth Grossman is also a general practice lawyer.

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