New Jersey can't ban ICE detention-center contracts, federal appeals court says
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Published July 22, 2025, 4:12 p.m. ET
A New Jersey law that prohibits contracts for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers is unconstitutional because it regulates the federal government, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ majority opinion found that New Jersey passed a law that “interferes with the federal government’s core power to enforce immigration law” simply because the state “dislikes some of the federal government’s immigration tools.”
Even though state and federal law often overlap, a state can’t cross the line and regulate how the federal government does its business. “And when it crosses that line, it violates the Constitution,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote. “New Jersey is on the wrong side of that line.”
The 2-1 ruling is a win for the private prison company that filed the lawsuit, CoreCivic. The company operates the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Elizabeth, which until recently was the state’s only immigration detention facility.
Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/news/new-jersey/new-jersey-ice-contracts-elizabeth-detention-center-ruling-20250722.html
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