Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down NJ Law Banning Immigration Detention Contracts

By William Teach July 23, 2025 – 6:45 am

I mean, it was a nice try by the Sanctuary State Of New Jersey

NJ law banning immigration detention contracts overturned by US appeals court



A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday struck down a New Jersey law that bans operators from contracting with the federal government to run immigration detention centers in the state.
The 2-1 ruling means the private prison firm CoreCivic Corp. can continue to operate the Elizabeth Detention Center. The ruling marked a victory for President Donald Trump’s administration as it continues a crackdown on immigration around the country that has included efforts to expand a network of detention centers in a bid to ramp up deporations of certain immigrants.
“Just as states cannot regulate the federal government itself, they cannot regulate private parties in a way that severely undercuts a federal function,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, an appointee of President Trump, wrote .
The law, he said, “interferes with the federal government’s core power to enforce immigration laws.”
And banning this would interfere with a company engaging in lawful federal commerce.
The 2021 law signed by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy barred CoreCivic from renewing its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company sued, and a district judge sided with the firm before the state appealed the ruling to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin, in a social media post, called Tuesday’s ruling disappointing and said states have the right to protect people within their borders. He said the office is considering its next steps.
The law made it against the law for “a private detention facility operating in this State shall not enter into, renew, or extend any immigration detention agreement as defined in subsection a. of this section.” That’s rather against federal law. As the court ruled.
Meanwhile
Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US
The federal government has awarded a contract to build and operate a sprawling tent camp at Fort Bliss, an Army base in Texas, to serve as an immigrant detention center.
In the Trump administration’s latest move to vastly expand space for such detention, the work would turn the base in El Paso, with more than 1 million acres and an airport, into a deportation hub with 5,000 beds, according to a US Department of Defense contract notice. That would make it the largest immigration detention facility in the country.
Hey, maybe they could put a big detention center at McGuire Air Force Base in NJ. Federal property. Or the Picatinny Arsenal.

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