The governor, Mikie Sherill, said Wednesday that she wants residents to record agents.
The governor of New Jersey said she will create a new online portal for residents to report encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and wants them recorded on video.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat and former House lawmaker who took office earlier this month, confirmed her plans in an announcement during a “The Daily Show” appearance on Comedy Central on Wednesday.
“We are also going to be standing up a portal so people can upload all their cellphone videos and alert people,” Sherrill said. “If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out. We want to know.”
Sherrill’s administration said in a statement to local media outlets that more details about the plan would be provided in cooperation with New Jersey acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport.
The governor added on Wednesday that she would attempt to bar ICE from working on New Jersey state property before repeating claims that ICE is targeting U.S. citizens, not just illegal immigrants.
“We want documentation, and we’re going to make sure we get it,” Sherrill said on the program.
The move is likely to draw pushback from the administration led by President Donald Trump, a Republican, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has said that ICE agents have faced an unprecedented rise in attacks during the first year of Trump’s second term in office.
A news release issued earlier this week from DHS said that ICE officers are facing an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against them and their families, along with a 1,300 percent increase in assaults.
“Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences. The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.
“Like everyone else, we just want to go home to our families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
