Alina Habba, the new U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said last night that she has opened an investigation into Gov. Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matthew Platkin for not cooperating with federal agencies on immigration.
Habba said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Murphy administration has instructions online telling law enforcement not to follow federal rules when it comes to undocumented immigrants.
“It is instructing them to go against our federal rules, our executive orders,” Habba said. “And I am unfortunately going to announce on your show tonight, Sean — 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.”
Habba appeared to be referring to a state directive that the New Jersey attorney general’s website says limits “the types of voluntary assistance that New Jersey’s 36,000 law enforcement officers may provide to federal immigration authorities.”
“Under the Directive, New Jersey police officers cannot participate in federal immigration raids,” the site says. “They cannot stop, question, arrest, search, or detain an individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration status. And they cannot ask an individual’s immigration statute except in rare cases when it is relevant to a specific criminal investigation.”
Habba said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump have made clear that undocumented immigrants who are criminals must be taken out of the U.S.
“Anybody who does get in that way, 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 them hard,” she said.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on Habba’s remarks. The state attorney general’s office declined to comment.