Judge tosses Trump administration’s challenge to New Jersey cities’ ‘sanctuary’ policies

By Nate Raymond and Mike Scarcella

June 24 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice had filed challenging policies that four New Jersey cities adopted restricting police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin in Newark marked the latest in a series of court losses for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in its efforts to challenge laws and policies adopted by so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” run by Democrats.

The Justice Department in a lawsuit filed in May 2025 argued the cities of Newark, Hoboken, Jersey City and Paterson are impeding federal immigration enforcement with policies that violate the U.S. Constitution and are preempted by federal law.

Those policies, it said, deny federal immigration agents access to immigrants in local custody, restrict local officers from handing over those in custody to federal agents and bar otherwise willing local officers from providing information to federal immigration authorities.

But Padin, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the Justice Department’s case “has a fundamental flaw—it treats the challenged policies as though they operate in isolation.”

They do not, she said, as under a statewide directive issued by New Jersey’s attorney general in 2008, law enforcement agencies, including those run by cities are restricted from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents beyond what the law requires.

She said that as a result, the alleged harms the Justice Department claims could not be addressed through the lawsuit, as any ruling in its favor would not free municipal law enforcement officers to do anything the statewide policy forbids.

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Representatives from Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jersey City Mayor James Solomon in a statement applauded the court’s ruling and said his city will “continue to do everything within our power to protect our neighbors and push back against the Trump Administration’s abusive and cruel federal overreach.”

Paterson’s Aymen Aboushi, who heads the city’s legal department, welcomed the judge’s decision, saying the city’s policies comply with federal law and that the dismissal affirms “the city’s commitment to its residents while upholding the law.”

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell and Aurora Ellis)