On August 20, 2021, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, signed Assembly Bill AB 5207 into law. It prohibited new contracts (Inter Governmental Service Agreements, aka IGSAs) between immigrant detention facilities and ICE (inclusive of private, state and local prisons) and required that existing IGSA contracts be phased out. “In keeping with its obligation to protect and advance the health and just treatment of all people within the State of New Jersey, it is therefore the intent of the Legislature to prevent new, expanded, or renewed agreements to detain people for civil immigration purposes.”[1]

The language of the final Bill which was signed by Governor Murphy did not specifically name the federal government in the Bill. Between the time AB...