ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 6310
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JANUARY 5, 2026
The Assembly Judiciary Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 6310.
This bill codifies the Attorney General Directive “Strengthening Trust Between Law Enforcement and Immigrant Communities.”
Under the provisions of this bill, a law enforcement officer is prohibited from engaging in conduct constituting racially-influenced policing. In addition, with certain exceptions, State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies and officers are prohibited from: 1) stopping, questioning, arresting, searching, or detaining any individual based solely on actual or suspected citizenship or immigration status or actual or suspected violations of federal civil immigration law; or 2) inquiring about an individual’s immigration status, unless it is necessary for an ongoing investigation of an indictable offense by that individual and relevant to the offense under investigation.
In addition, with certain exceptions, the bill prohibits State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies and officers from providing certain types of assistance to federal immigration authorities when the sole purpose is to enforce federal civil immigration law.
Further, the bill prohibits State, county, or municipal law enforcement agencies from entering into, modifying, renewing, or extending any agreement to exercise federal immigration authority pursuant to section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and from exercising any law enforcement authority pursuant to a preexisting section 287(g) agreement. This section of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the federal Department of Homeland Security to delegate immigration enforcement functions to State and local law enforcement agencies, including the power to identify, arrest, and process individuals for immigration violations.
The bill’s provisions do not apply to existing contracts between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and certain counties to house ICE detainees.
Under the bill, every State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency is required to establish procedures that include certain determinations for processing requests for T-visa and U-visa certifications from potential victims of crime or human trafficking within 120 days of the request being made. Each law enforcement agency is required to post information about its procedures on its website, or if it does not have a website, on the website of the county or municipality it serves, when feasible.
In addition, the bill provides that at a defendant’s initial court appearance before a judge, the prosecutor is to confirm that the defendant has been advised on the record that potential charges and convictions may carry immigration consequences and that the defendant may have rights to consular notification pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Under the bill, in assessing whether to seek pretrial detention of an arrestee under current law, the prosecutor is to make an individualized assessment based on the specific facts presented in each case and is not to assume that a non-citizen presents a risk of flight. When evidence of the defendant’s immigration status is not relevant to the crime charged or to a witness’s credibility, it is not to be presented to the jury. In rare cases where it is relevant and admissible at trial, the prosecutor is not to seek to admit the evidence without first raising the issue with the court outside of the jury’s presence and requesting that the court give an appropriate limiting instruction.
Further, the bill requires every State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency and official to notify a detained individual, in writing and in a language the individual can understand, when federal civil immigration authorities request to interview the detainee, to be notified of the detainee’s upcoming release from custody, or to continue detaining the detainee past the time the detainee would otherwise be eligible for release. The bill also requires agencies to provide a detained individual with copies of the documents provided by federal immigration authorities in connection with any request.
Also, under the provisions of this bill, on an annual basis, each State, county, and municipal law enforcement agency is required to report, in a manner prescribed by the Attorney General, any instances in which the agency provided assistance to federal civil immigration authorities that are prohibited by the bill. Municipal and county law enforcement agencies are required to submit a report to the county prosecutor, who is then required to submit a consolidated report to the Attorney General. The New Jersey State Police and all other State law enforcement agencies are required to submit the report to the Attorney General. The Attorney General is to post online a consolidated report detailing all instances of assistance by State, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies.
Finally, the bill requires the Division of Criminal Justice to develop a training program to explain the requirements of the bill and requires all State, county, and municipal law enforcement officers to complete the training within 60 days after it becomes available. The bill also requires county prosecutors to educate the public about the provisions of the bill, with a focus on strengthening trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities.