Court Rules Against New Jersey Bid to Ban ICE Detention Facilities in State

A state cannot control the federal government and vice versa since each is sovereign, Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Delaney Hall, a newly converted immigrant detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., on May 7, 2025. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

New Jersey does not have the authority to prohibit private prison companies from housing illegal immigrants on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled on July 22.

In August 2021, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Assembly Bill 5207, which bans state and local entities, as well as private detention facilities, from entering into agreements to detain illegal immigrants. In February 2023, CoreCivic, which operates private correctional and detention facilities across the United States, sued New Jersey officials, including Murphy.

AB 5207 prohibits CoreCivic from renewing a contract with ICE under which the company manages and operates the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which represents “essentially the entire immigration detention capacity for the Federal Government in New Jersey,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint argued that AB 5207 “undermines and eliminates the congressionally funded and approved enforcement of federal immigration law by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the State of New Jersey.”

In a July 22 ruling, the Third Circuit appeals court sided with CoreCivic.

“Just as the federal government cannot control a state, so too a state cannot control the federal government. Each is sovereign. Each is ‘protected from incursion by the other,’” Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote.

Sometimes, a state interferes directly with federal policy, destroying it through “hostile legislation,” he said.

“And when it crosses that line, it violates the Constitution. New Jersey is on the wrong side of that line. It dislikes some of the federal government’s immigration tools, so it passed a law with the ‘intent’ to forbid new contracts for civil immigration detention,” Bibas wrote.

“Because New Jersey’s law violates intergovernmental immunity, we will affirm the District Court’s summary judgment for the contractor.”

The summary judgment had favored CoreCivic and declared AB 5207 “unconstitutional.”

Bibas was joined by Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause.

Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro said in a dissent that New Jersey’s law directly regulates only the state, local governments, and private companies.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) criticized the appeals court decision, calling it a moral failure, in a July 22 statement from his office.

“[The ruling] allows private prisons to profit from immigrant detention contracts, hindering the state legislature’s power to protect New Jerseyans from predatory, greedy, and abusive private prison companies,” he said.

“This decision perpetuates a perverse incentive to fill beds that put corporate profits over human costs and undermines the will of New Jerseyans whose democratically-elected officials passed this legislation.”

On its website, CoreCivic states that it plays a “limited but important role” in the country’s immigration system.

The company says its facilities are contractually obligated to adhere to rigorous federal immigration standards. It also states that the sites routinely get independently audited without any prior notice.

Without private contractors, there will be a “major hole” in the country’s immigration system, with billions of dollars in taxpayer funds funneled to build new detention facilities and hire public employees, the company states.

CoreCivic treats the people held at its facilities humanely while they prepare for their immigration procedures, according to its website.

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with its policies addressing illegal immigration.

In a July 23 X post, the White House said that the number of ICE arrests of criminal illegal immigrants across various states have soared under the Trump administration.

“President Donald J. Trump makes good on his promise to rid our communities of these threats to public safety—making sure illegal alien killers, rapists, gangbangers, and other violent criminals find no safe harbor,” the White House stated.

In a July 20 statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the Trump administration had arrested more than 300,000 illegal immigrants this year.

The Epoch Times reached out to Murphy for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

4-Decade Government Partnership

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs at CoreCivic, said the company has a “long-standing, zero-tolerance policy not to advocate for or against any legislation that serves as the basis for—or determines the duration of—an individual’s detention.”

CoreCivic has partnered with ICE and its predecessor for more than 40 years, under every U.S. administration, both Democratic and Republican, according to Gusin.

“CoreCivic does not enforce immigration laws, arrest anyone who may be in violation of immigration laws, or have any say whatsoever in an individual’s deportation or release. CoreCivic also does not know the circumstances of individuals when they are placed in our facilities,” Gustin said.

“The Department of Homeland Security has found that private facilities like ours offer more than 24 percent cost savings to taxpayers.”