New Jersey Democrats say more hearings probing immigration enforcement and less money for ICE are in the cards if their party wins control of Congress. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-08), who is running for his third term in November with no Republican opponent, said part of the reason for holding such hearings is to demonstrate what Democrats would do if they had the gavels.
The Nov. 3 midterm elections will decide whether Republicans retain control of Congress or whether President Donald Trump’s plunging approval ratings will allow Democrats to flip the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, or both. Here in New Jersey, Sen. Cory Booker (D) is on the ballot, as are all 12 House seats. A Democratic victory could force more Trump administration officials to testify in front of Congress at hearings controlled by Democrats, and it could give the party a stronger hand in deciding how much money U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement receives in the future.
New Jersey has made national news for being on the front lines of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, with Delaney Hall becoming a flashpoint in the debate earlier this year when protests erupted outside the facility. Morris County residents, too, saw themselves at the center of the debate when the administration said it would open an immigrant processing center in Roxbury, a plan that quickly became the target of a lawsuit by the Sherrill administration and Roxbury’s GOP leadership.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D) is set to stand trial on federal assault charges related to one of her oversight visits to Delaney Hall last year, a trial she said is part of the president’s crusade against his administration’s critics. New Jersey Democrats have touted the work they’ve already done as the party in the minority, including regular oversight visits to Delaney and Elizabeth Detention Center.
Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-11) said she found a constituent in detention during one of those visits, a Morristown small business owner with a work permit who paid taxes and who had been detained and “given a quarter of her diabetes medication.” Mejia won a special election in April to represent the 11th District in the House and is running next month to remain in the seat for the 120th Congress, which begins its term in January.
“As we prepare for the 120th, we need to ensure that we’re creating a roadmap, a pathway to citizenship, to as many law-abiding people that actually build and support our economy, our nation, our democracy,” she said. Her Republican opponent, Joe Hathaway, said he worries a Democratic majority would lead to a rise in power for the party’s left-leaning faction. Hathaway, a councilman in Randolph, said those Democrats want “no jails, no Supreme Court, no borders.” “That group will have now an outsized influence when it comes to legislation,” he warned.
At a recent town hall in Bloomfield, Mejia told voters she does indeed believe the nation should have borders. “It is important for us to realize, however, that our immigration system, one, it has evolved,” she said. “Part of the problem that we are seeing is that people stay in limbo for over a decade, even if you’re following the law. And so what I have advocated for is we should invest in a system – if you can fill out a credit card application and in 15 seconds, you can get a credit card, but if you’re an immigrant, it takes years to get a green card.”
