By Curtis Brodner
(TRENTON, N.J.) A bill that would prevent private prisons in New Jersey from entering into contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants is moving through the state legislature after over a month of deliberations, NJ.com reported.
J S3361 passed the state assembly Monday with a vote of 46-24 and passed the Senate Budget Committee Tuesday, clearing the path for a vote.
The bill would prevent both state-run and private detention centers from signing contracts to detain non-citizens. It would also prevent the renewal of existing contracts.
“County jails and other entities should be used to house people accused of real crimes, not to hold undocumented immigrants, and thereby needlessly separating them from their families,” said state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, the primary sponsor of the bill, per NJ.com.
Activists and advocates have pushed hard to end N.J. contracts with ICE over the course of the last year. Detainees have gone on hunger strike in N.J. jails and activists have regularly protested outside prisons holding ICE detainees in Northern NJ.
Essex County ended its contract with ICE in late April under mounting pressure from constituents, according to The New York Times.
The vast majority of detainees held in N.J. jails committed no crime other than crossing the border without the proper paperwork.
The contracts were lucrative for the counties that signed them — $120 per prisoner per day.
If the bill passes the Democrat-controlled Senate, and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signs it, New Jersey will be the fifth state to ban contracts with ICE.