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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, announced that state officials will launch a portal allowing residents to upload photos and videos of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducting federal operations.
Sherrill revealed the initiative during a Wednesday appearance on The Daily Show, Comedy Central’s nightly comedy news program.
“If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out, we want to know,” Sherrill said.
“They have not been forthcoming,” the governor continued. “They will pick people up, they will not tell us who they are, they will not tell us if they’re here legally, they won’t check. They’ll pick up American citizens. They picked up a five-year-old child. We want documentation, and we are going to make sure we get it.”
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Sherill said her administration will soon be launching a portal so New Jersey residents “can upload all their cell phone videos and alert people” about local immigration operations.
A spokesperson for the governor, Sean Higgins, said Sherill’s administration will release further details in the coming days.
“Keeping New Jerseyans safe is Governor Sherrill’s top priority and, in the coming days, she and Acting Attorney General Davenport will announce additional actions to protect New Jerseyans from federal overreach,” Higgins said in a statement.
Sherrill also said that her administration intends to provide information to educate New Jerseyans on their rights in the state.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James launched a similar portal in her state in October, saying state officials would review the videos and images uploaded to the portal to determine whether immigration agents violated the law. California officials also opened a portal last month for residents to report possible unlawful acts by ICE agents.
Some grassroots groups across the country have also been warning community members of reports of ICE activity, so migrants can avoid the area.
This comes after two killings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis this month. Both shootings were recorded by bystanders and sparked unrest in Minnesota and across the country.
Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, and Border Patrol agents on Saturday fatally shot Alex Pretti while he was recording immigration enforcement operations in the same city.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, appeared to be attempting to assist a woman agents had knocked down when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten, according to video and witness accounts. An agent was later seen pulling Pretti’s lawfully owned firearm from his waistband before other agents fired several shots, killing him.
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Sherrill also compared ICE to secret police forces she observed in other countries when she served in the Navy.
“We saw people in the street with masks and no insignia. So not accountable at all, hiding from the population – and we saw again and again an undermining of what law enforcement should do to keep people safe,” she said on Wednesday.
Democrats in Congress and in various state legislatures have sought for months to adopt measures that would ban immigration agents from wearing masks to hide their identities, arguing that such legislation is needed to ensure transparency.