US Politics
Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey use blunt acronym to name anti-ICE legislation
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Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey have sent a blunt message to Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the introduction of a new bill.
The “Fight Unlawful Conduct and Keep Individuals and Communities Empowered Act” – or F*** ICE Act – was introduced Thursday in the State Assembly. It aims to extend residents’ rights under state law to sue federal immigration officials for unconstitutional conduct.
“There have to be real consequences if ICE breaks the law,” said Katie Brennan, an Assembly Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill alongside former Hoboken mayor Ravi Bhalla, also a Democrat, according to The New York Times.
The sponsors didn’t explicitly note the double meaning behind the bill’s acronym, but Brennan told NJ.com the measure “speaks for itself.”
The “F**K ICE Act” is part of a broader package of bills that legislators have recently introduced as a means of protecting immigrants in New Jersey, one of the most diverse states in the nation.
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“ICE has no place in our communities,” Bhalla said in a statement. “These bills help our local law enforcement do their jobs properly while giving the state more tools to stop these raids from happening in the first place.”
Lawmakers say the bills were a response to ICE detaining several people in Jersey City and Hoboken, two cities located less than five miles outside of New York City, earlier this month.
During one of the raids, Jersey City Councilman Jake Ephros asked an agent whether he had a warrant. The agent replied: “We don’t need a warrant, bro. Stop getting that into your head,” according to NJ.com.
Some social media users praised the proposed legislation for fighting back against President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
“PLEASE NEW JERSEY PASS THE LITERAL F**K ICE ACT PLEASE,” one social media user wrote.
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However, local Republican lawmakers expressed shock over the bill’s blunt attitude.
“So they’re doing acronyms now,” Republican Assemblyman Mike Inganamort wrote on X. “This sort of radicalism is the inevitable result of an unchecked, 25-year Democratic Majority. It’s what our Republican Minority stands against and why elections matter,” he added.
Another Republican Assemblywoman, Dawn Fantasia, added: “The bill title is wild, but the premise is wilder.”
“Don’t have the text yet, but if it means what it sounds like, that’s illegal entry followed by a state-created pathway to sue over enforcement,” she said.
Several ICE-related bills are moving forward in the New Jersey Legislature, including new versions of two proposals that Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, vetoed before he left office last month.
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The bills are expected to be voted on next week by the state Senate and Assembly before heading to the desk of the new governor, Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat and frequent critic of Trump and ICE.
Sherrill has already signed an executive order to create a statewide portal for residents to upload photos and videos of federal immigration enforcement activity and another barring ICE agents from accessing non-public areas of state property without a judicial warrant, according to NJ.com.
