S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
123 Washington Street
Newark, New Jersey 07102-3094
Phone: (973) 353-3159

October 18, 2020

RE: Open Public Records Act and Common Law Request Regarding Implementation of the New Jersey Attorney General Immigrant Trust Directive 2018-6

Dear Records Custodian,

Pursuant to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA – N.J.S.A.47:1A-1, et seq.) and common law right of access, we write seeking to obtain records related to how your Department (herein referred to as “the Department”) has implemented the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s Immigrant Trust Directive 2018-6 and how this agency works with federal immigration enforcement officials. We ask that you please direct this request to all appropriate offices, departments, and records custodians within the Department that may supply any of the records sought through this request.

A. Our Common Law Interest
The Immigrant Trust Directive intends to curtail state and local participation in federal immigration enforcement, ensure effective policing, and foster relationships between law enforcement agencies and immigrant communities. As part of a scholarly research project, we, the requestors, seek these documents in order to assess the degree to which the Department is committed to implementing the directive and is in compliance with public records request laws.

We the requesters are Dean Rose Cuison-Villazor and Dr. Peter Mancina. Dean Cuison-Villazor is Vice Dean, Professor of Law, and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar of the Rutgers Law School and Director of the Center for Immigration Law, Policy, and Justice. She has written and published extensively about non-cooperation policies or “sanctuary” policies, which have been published in the Columbia Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Washington University Law Review, and UC Davis Law Review. Dean Cuison-Villazor is also Director of the Center for Immigration Law, Policy and Justice (CILPJ), which engages in interdisciplinary scholarship, research, and advocacy focused on exploring more inclusive immigration and citizenship laws.

Dr. Peter Mancina is Visiting Scholar in the Center for Immigration Law, Policy, and Justice at Rutgers Law School, Researcher in the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, and Research Associate in the University of Oxford Centre for Criminology and Border Criminologies Program. Dr. Mancina has examined the historical development of sanctuary policy in the United States and police compliance with “sanctuary” laws at the local, county, and state levels. He is author of the 2019 policy implementation report Turning the Golden State into a Sanctuary State: A Report on the Impact and Implementation of the California Values Act (SB54).

We greatly appreciate your assistance in providing us the following documents.

B. Requested Records (Footnote 1 below)

I. Policies, Regulations, Memorandum, Guidance, and Forms

1. All records of policies, regulations, memorandum, guidance, or forms that the Department has adopted related to the implementation of the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s Immigrant Trust Directive 2018-6 version 1 (issued on November 29, 2018)(Footnote 2 below) and version 2 (issued on March 15, 2019) (Footnote 3 below), herein both versions referred to collectively as the “Directive.”
Date Range: November 29, 2018 to the present.

2. All records of policies, procedures, protocols, directives, general orders that the Department has adopted regarding providing any form of assistance to, undertaking joint operations with, or forming joint task forces with the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE” (including ICE Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”)). Examples of such policies may pertain to how the Department

a. books or releases federal criminal or immigration detainees; transfers individuals into federal custody;
b. provides DHS, CBP, ICE, and HSI access to department facilities, Department computers, information technology networks, department databases;
c. provides immigration agencies use of Department offices, desk space, or space where they can carry out their federal work;
d. responds to federal requests for a notification of an inmate’s release date, time, and place, as well as any personally identifying information for the individual;
e. detains individuals for the purpose of enforcing immigration law;
f. acts upon DHS, CBP, ICE, and HSI administrative warrants;
g. responds to federal immigration agency requests to interview people in Department custody and provides access to these individuals to carry out an interview;
h. provides backup assistance including but not limited to traffic control and perimeter security in the event of an immigration enforcement action or emergency situation;
i. provides booking rosters, intake rosters, or lists of detainees in Department detention facilities;
j. asks members of the public, witnesses, suspects, or those who have been arrested about immigration status information;
k. patrols U.S. national borders;
l. processes requests for T- and U-visa certifications; or
m. submits Immigrant Alien Queries (IAQs) to the ICE Law Enforcement Support Center (“ICE-LESC”) and acts upon Immigrant Alien Responses (IARs) from the ICE-LESC as part of the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP)
Date Range: November 29, 2018 to the present.

II. Agreements, Contracts, or Memorandum of Understanding

3. All agreements, contracts, or Memorandum of Understanding, including any addendum or renewal document between DHS, ICE, ICE-HSI, or CBP and the Department. Date Range: November 29, 2018 to the present

III. Training Records

4. All records that the Department has used to train its members about the Directive, including training materials, manuals, memorandums, and power point presentations. Date range: November 29, 2018 to the present

5. Any training logs records that the Department has created to track the completion of training of its employees in the Directive or Directive-related Department policies. Date range: November 29, 2018 to the present

IV. Incident Reports

6. All incident reports related to the Department providing any form of assistance to CBP or ICE, (including HSI) as described in request number 2, participation in joint task forces, a 287g program, or any other form of joint operation with CBP, or ICE (including HSI). Date Range: November 29, 2018 to the present

7. All incident reports related to incidents when CBP or ICE, (including HSI) arrested an individual on Department property immediately after they were released from Department custody to the public. Date Range: November 29, 2018 to the present

V. Quantitative Data Reports Regarding Department Assistance to ICE and CBP

8. All records (including electronically stored information in a database, written reports, statistics, memoranda or other data) that provide the number of instances when the Department accommodated an ICE or CBP request for the Department to
a. detain an individual
b. transfer an individual to ICE or CBP custody
c. notify ICE or CBP of the person’s release from Department custody
d. provide backup assistance for an immigration enforcement action
e. provide backup assistance for an emergency situation
f. allow ICE or CBP to interview an individual in Department custody
g. participate in a joint operation with ICE or CBP; or
h. any other form of assistance to ICE or CBP
Date Range: November 29, 2017 to the present

9. All reports, emails, and memorandum that explain the reason, purpose, policy basis, or goal for which the Department accommodated ICE or CBP requests for assistance outlined in request number 8. Date Range: November 29, 2017 to the present

10. All records (including electronically stored information in a database, written reports, statistics, memoranda or other data), arrest reports, CAD reports or similar records) that list
a. the number of individuals arrested during joint operations with DHS, ICE, or CBP;
b. the criminal charges brought against each individual that was arrested during joint operations with DHS, ICE, or CBP; or
c. the number of individuals charged with civil immigration violations during joint operations with DHS, ICE, or CBP.
Date Range: November 29, 2017 to the present

11. All records (including electronically stored information in a database, written reports, statistics, memoranda or other data), that list the number of people that the Department released to the public and who were immediately arrested by ICE or CBP on Department property. Date Range: November 29, 2017 to the present

VI. Detainee Movement Logs

12. All records that include the “movement history” logs of individuals in Department custody for whom an I-247 detainer, notification request, or transfer request was lodged. This may include records logging how individuals are moved through different Department divisions, wings, areas, programs, or Department facilities (ie. Booking, housing). Date Range: November 29, 2017 to the present

VII. Communications Records

13. All communications (herein, “communications” refers to emails, texts, faxes, letters, social media posts) about implementing the Directive in the Department, how the Department interacts with or assists ICE and CBP, or making inmate release information available to the public between Department Command Staff or Supervising Staff and the following types of Department employees:
a. Those who contribute to the development of department policy;
b. Those who directly interact with the public;
c. Those who directly interact with people in Department custody; and
d. Those who directly interact with federal immigration agencies
Date Range: November, 29, 2018 to the present

14. All communications about implementing the Directive in the Department, how the Department interacts with ICE and CBP, or making inmate release information available to the public between Department Personnel and individuals in the following external agencies:
a. ICE;
b. CBP;
c. The U.S. Department of Justice;
d. The White House;
e. The New Jersey Department of Justice;
f. The Sheriffs Association of New Jersey; or
g. The New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police
Date Range: November, 29, 2018 to the present
We request that all responsive records be sent as electronic files via email to [email address]. If the Department cannot provide responsive documents to certain requests above, please indicate the number of the request and the reason for the denial.

As N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i) provides that public agencies respond to OPRA records requests within 7 days, I look forward to hearing from you within this time.
Thank you in advance and we look forward to your response.
Sincerely,

Dean Rose Cuison-Villazor
Vice Dean, Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar
Director, Center for Immigration Law, Policy and Justice
Rutgers Law School
123 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone number: (973) 353-3159
Email: [email address]

Dr. Peter Mancina
Visiting Scholar, Center for Immigration Law, Policy and Justice
Rutgers Law School
123 Washington Street
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone number: (415)-226-8714
Email: [email address]

Footnotes
FN1: The term “records” as used herein means records as broadly defined by N.J.S.A.47:1A-1.1 and includes, “any paper, written or printed book, document, drawing, map, plan, photograph, microfilm, data processed or image processed document, information stored or maintained electronically or by sound-recording or in a similar device, or any copy thereof, that has been made, maintained or kept on file in the course of his or its official business by any officer, commission, agency or authority of the State or of any political subdivision thereof, including subordinate boards thereof, or that has been received in the course of his or its official business by any such officer, commission, agency, or authority of the State or of any political subdivision thereof, including subordinate boards thereof. The terms shall not include inter-agency or intra-agency advisory, consultative, or deliberative material.” “Records” that we are interested in obtaining are those that not only are stored in government office locations, on government servers, or on government computers and devices but also in private locations and storage facilities, on private servers, on private computers and devices, in private email accounts, and in public and private social media accounts.

FN2: Version 1: https://web.archive.org/web/201905020003...

FN3: Version 2: https://www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/agguide/direc...