Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced an investigation into the state’s governor and attorney general over allegations they are refusing to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Habba—Trump’s former personal attorney and spokesperson who was appointed acting U.S. attorney on March 24 after serving as White House counselor—revealed the probe Thursday during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program. She alleged that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin directed state police to avoid cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“And unfortunately, I will 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 Governor Murphy, to open an investigation into Attorney General Platkin, who has also instructed the state police not to assist any of our federal… agencies under that are under my direction…” she said.
It comes after the Democratic governor allegedly told his troopers to ignore thousands of arrest warrants listed on a federal database. Shore News Network reported that the directive came from both Murphy and Platkin.
The two officials appear to be following current state law. In 2018, New Jersey implemented a landmark policy known as the Immigrant Trust Directive, aimed at building trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities. The directive was designed to ensure that victims and witnesses can report crimes to local police without fear of deportation.
But Habba, who is a New Jersey native, said that doesn’t matter.
“That will no longer stand,” Habba told Hannity of Murphy and Platkin’s alleged directive. U.S. Attorney General “Pam Bondi has made it clear and so has our president that we are to take all criminals, violent criminals, and criminals [sic] out of this country and to completely enforce federal law.”
She added: “And 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.”
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Citing Title 8 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which covers “Aliens and Nationality,” she noted: “And let me tell you, to my state officers in New Jersey, some of whom I met with today, I appreciate and respect what you can and cannot do. They don’t have Title 8 authority. I understand that.”
“But what they have been instructed to do by the AG and the governor, as is on their website, is to not even make the phone call to ICE when they run the record and see there is a valid warrant and administrative warrant ordering deportation. That is putting the people in my state in jeopardy,” Habba said.
“And if you did commit a crime, if you ordered obstruction, if you are ordering concealment and harboring, you will be charged,” Habba threatened.
Last week, Habba secured the dismissal of a long-running foreign bribery case on Wednesday, following a federal judge’s initial refusal to pause the proceedings by Trump’s executive order halting enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The case, filed in 2019, targeted two executives from Teaneck, NJ-based technology outsourcing firm Cognizant, who were accused of authorizing bribes to an Indian official to expedite the construction of a major office complex in Chennai, the New York Post reported.
“After consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, the Government hereby moves to dismiss this matter,” Habba said in a court filing last week. “The Government’s motion is based on the recent assessment of the Executive Order’s application to this matter.”