Ditch ‘sanctuary’ and pay NJ cops to catch and deport, lawmaker says

🚨 Republican wants to give local cops the authority to detain migrants

🚨 Bill would pay police per deportation

🚨 Lawmaker says the program would pay for itself

TRENTON — A New Jersey lawmaker wants to put cash in the hands of police departments that help federal authorities catch and deport unauthorized immigrants.

Assemblyman Paul Kanitra, R-Ocean, is the prime sponsor of the Immigration Enforcement Support Act (A5232).

The bill would give a $7,000 incentive to local police departments for each caught migrant who is turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and successfully deported.

And it covers any unauthorized immigrant in New Jersey.

"Anyone who's come into the country illegally has broken the law. This would apply to anyone who's broken the laws of the United States and therefore is here illegally," Kanitra said.

Where does the money go?

The money would reimburse local police departments that use their resources to help with deportations.

"This would offset salaries, this would offset man-hour costs, this would offset any other kind of allocation that would go into this," Kanitra said.

READ MORE: NJ Residents Support ICE Enforcement

The Republican assemblyman said the New Jersey police officers he's talked to want to help speed up deportations by providing more manpower. ICE has around 20,000 agents worldwide.

Where does the money come from?

According to Kanitra, the Immigration Enforcement Support Act would pay for itself and save New Jersey money in the long run.

"This money would just come out of all the allocation of financial resources and programs that illegal immigrants are currently getting," Kanitra said.

It's unknown exactly how many unauthorized immigrants are in New Jersey.

According to a 2024 study from left-leaning think tank Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, there are 428,000 unauthorized immigrants in the state. The study said they contribute $1.3 billion in taxes each year.

But Kanitra's office released a report with very different findings last May.

The report said that there are upwards of "892,000 illegal aliens" in New Jersey. And it claimed migrants cost the state at least $7.3 billion each year.

If each one of the nearly 900,000 unauthorized migrants in the state was deported with help from a New Jersey police department, those agencies would get over $6.2 billion in state funding.

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