New Jersey Budget Funds Gaza Activist Group To Fight Trump Immigration Policy

The first budget by New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherill, pours $20 million into free legal services for migrants fighting ICE detention — a 150 percent increase over last year under the previous Democratic governor.The new measure will send millions to a handful of nonprofits and two law schools. Ms. Sherrill’s office describes its Detention and Deportation Defense Initiative as a partnership “with community-based legal services providers including Legal Services of New Jersey, American Friends Service Committee, Rutgers Law School, and Seton Hall Law School.”The two nonprofits receive millions of dollars in donations and grants each year and occasionally distribute money to each other. One of them, a longstanding Pennsylvania-based Quaker organization, The American Friends Service Committee, operates internationally, including in Gaza where it serves Palestinians impacted but what the organization calls a “genocide” at the hands of Israel. “This is insulting to every New Jersey taxpayer for the Democrats to fund their pet projects,” said Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn, a Republican. “New Jersey families are unknowingly financing an out-of-state, left-wing advocacy organization while they are forced to do more with less.”According to a Newark-based immigration attorney, Regis Fernandez, a petition for habeas corpus to stop a removal or free a migrant from ICE custody is typically charged by private lawyers as a flat fee between $5,000 and $10,000. Emergency petitions can cost more than that, he said. At $10,000 a case, that appears to be enough to help thousands of undocumented immigrants, but the law schools and nonprofits have significant overhead.Spokespeople for Seton Hall Law school referred questions back to the state’s Office of New Americans. A 2021 news release from the law school said that 19 law students, faculty, and lawyers dedicated time to assisting those fighting deportation and detention.The friends committee, which did not respond to a request for comment from The New York Sun, has listed on its website a “Declaration of Resistance.” The oath includes language that says, “I will not help the government, law enforcement, or corporate entities violate the rights of others” and “I will not cooperate, share information, or provide services that will be used to facilitate repression and violence.” An independent financial disclosure says the committee helped Palestinian farmers restore their land and “in the U.S., we mobilized communities nationwide to demand an end to U.S. complicity in the violence against Palestinians.”“Governor Sherrill and the Democrats used the state budget to funnel New Jersey taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to the American Friends Service Committee, an out-of-state, left-wing advocacy organization whose mission extends to pro-Palestine advocacy,” Ms. Flynn said. “Let that sink in.”Legal Services of New Jersey is a 501c(3) that provides free or affordable legal assistance for low-income people in the Garden State. It began services in 1966.According to the latest publicly available IRS filings, the nonprofit took in $118 million in revenue in 2024 and paid $30 million in salaries and benefits. Its president, Dawn K. Miller, received $351,871 in total compensation, according to the filings. The American Friends Service Committee received a $3.8 million grant from the nonprofit for legal assistance for individuals facing deportation and a student legal internship program.New Jersey’s Detention Deportation Defense Initiative began in 2018 under then-Governor Phil Murphy intended to grant free legal defense for those facing detention and deportation during the first Trump administration. It launched with $2 million in state funding, one-tenth of today’s funding level.

New Jersey Budget Funds Gaza Activist Group To Fight Trump Immigration Policy

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