Are sanctuary cities prepared to stop ICE on school premises?

This story is part of the New Jersey 2025 Reporting Fellowship, in collaboration with 15 local and community news organizations, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University and NJ Spotlight News. The stories in this collaboration focus on immigration, education, healthcare, the economy and environment from the perspectives of diverse communities in New Jersey.

Image credits: (Left) “Welcome to Class” door sign in Abington Avenue School in Newark, New Jersey, taken on Oct. 30, 2025. (Right) Graphic depicting Newark, Jersey City, and Hoboken as designated sanctuary cities in New Jersey. Photo/graphic credits: Anthony Orlando for Public Square Amplified.

Newark, NJ - Newark is one of only four sanctuary cities in the state of New Jersey. While there is no official definition for a “sanctuary city,” they are generally identified as municipalities with jurisdictions that limit voluntary cooperation between local agencies and federal immigration authorities to ensure residents' safety and well-being. 

According to the American Immigration Council, the phrase “sanctuary city” originated from the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s, when churches, synagogues, and other religious organizations offered asylum to Central American refugees who fled to the U.S. from civil wars. 

In 2017, Mayor Ras J. Baraka signed an executive order codifying Newark’s sanctuary city status in a stand against the first Trump Administration’s mass detainment and deportation of immigrants in the U.S. The executive order states:

“[The] City of Newark and its agents shall not expend any time, funds, or resources on facilitating the civil enforcement of federal immigration law nor participating in civil immigration enforcement operations, except where legally required to do so by state or federal law or regulation, or New Jersey Attorney General Guidelines, or directive or court order.”

On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump revoked an Obama-era memorandum, widely known as the “sensitive locations memo,” as part of his plan for widespread detainments and deportations of immigrants. This memo prohibited ICE agents from conducting immigration enforcement in schools, hospitals, and places of worship, thereby ensuring that people would be deterred from accessing or engaging in essential services or activities.

In an interview with Public Square Amplified, Amol Sinha, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, denounced Trump’s revocation of the sensitive locations memo.

“The Trump administration is basically saying that nowhere is safe for immigrants,” said Sinha. “And they are taking these time-tested, tried and true [policies] like the sensitive locations memo, and undoing them to force people to live in fear. Not only is it unjust, it's also inhumane.”

Trump increased his attack on sanctuary cities on Apr. 28 with Executive Order 14287. This ordered the Attorney General and the Homeland Security to list all states and local jurisdictions that “obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.” It also ordered them to “pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to end these violations and bring such jurisdictions into compliance with the laws of the United States.”

Multiple New Jersey municipalities soon became targeted by the Trump Administration. On May 22, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state’s four sanctuary cities — Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken — demanding that they revoke their jurisdictions that limit federal immigration enforcement. 

However, Baraka has since denounced the lawsuit and continues to support the safety of immigrant students and families in Newark.

[ICE] ”can't just come in here and drop students off the [school] property without a warrant,” Baraka said to Public Square Amplified. “If they do that, that's a violation that they have across the state of New Jersey. And the state attorney general has a directive that we cannot participate and support these folks…so we have to be mindful of that and make sure we protect our young people and protect our teachers…”

ACLU-NJ also criticized these executive orders, with Sinha calling them “baseless attempts to intimidate states and cities into compliance with the administration’s mass deportation agenda.”

In response to the DOJ’s lawsuit, on Oct. 28, ACLU-NJ announced that it has filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the “Community Trust Policies” that limit voluntary collaboration with federal immigration enforcement in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken. Representing itself and 29 partner organizations, ACLU-NJ argued that these policies “promote the safety, health, and welfare of all residents, regardless of immigration status.”

“It is crucial that our local leaders are not only able to build trust with their community members, but that our children are able to learn to trust their local governments in order to feel safe, attend school, and obtain vital social services,” said Samantha Rumsey, legal director of the New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children. ”By limiting the use of local resources for immigration enforcement, cities with Community Trust Policies make it possible for children to live more full, fearless lives."

Even with the Trump Administration’s crackdown on sanctuary cities, several protective laws and policies remain in effect in Newark.

Graphic credits: (Left) A 2023 infographic depicting the percentage of U.S. citizens in the population of Newark, New Jersey. (Right) A 2023 infographic depicting the size of racial and ethnic groups in the population of Newark, New Jersey. Graphics courtesy of: Data USA (https://datausa.io/profile/geo/newark-nj/)

According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, ICE and any other collaborating federal agencies can enter public areas of a school, such as parking lots and lobbies. Despite this, they still need authorization from school officials or a judicial warrant to enter private spaces of the school, including classrooms, private offices, and restrooms.

This ruling was strengthened after the state Attorney General issued the Immigrant Trust Directive in Nov. 2018, which was then revised in 2019. This directive limits the types of voluntary assistance that state law enforcement officers can provide to federal immigration authorities. This rule applies to New Jersey police officers, correctional officers, and state and county prosecutors. 

This directive prohibits state police officers from stopping, questioning, arresting, searching, or detaining anyone solely based on their “actual or suspected immigration status.” They also cannot participate in ICE’s immigration enforcement operations, nor can they provide them with state or local law enforcement resources.

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) has claimed that it is “unwavering in its commitment to ensuring that every student, regardless of immigration status, national origin, or religion, can attend public school safely.” Thus, it has outlined the rules and protocols for school staff to follow while ensuring students’ safety and privacy. 

The NJDOE has stated that local educational agencies (LEAs) must comply with judicial search or arrest warrants, court orders, and subpoenas signed by a judge. Nevertheless, school staff are required to seek direction from the Chief School Administrator if an immigration agent tries to access school grounds. 

These administrators are not required to allow agents onto school grounds without an official, judicially issued warrant or “exigent circumstances.” Administrative immigration warrants, such as the ICE Warrant for Arrest of Alien, do not qualify.

Schools also don’t have to make students available or reveal their attendance or locations without speaking with the Chief School Administrator or legal counsel. Likewise, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) gives parents the right to “consent to the disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records, except as provided by law.” Should federal officers request a student’s records, FERPA requires schools to inform parents in advance so they can “seek protective action.”

In addition, ACLU-NJ has issued guidance for schools on interacting with immigration officials. They recommend that schools select a “well-trained individual or immigrant advocacy group personnel to approach ICE agents” should they appear near or outside school property. Schools are advised to have rapid-response teams ready to support students if their parent or guardian is detained.

Even with sanctuary jurisdictions still in place for Newark public schools, the Trump Administration's ongoing detainment and deportation of immigrants have highlighted the severe risks immigrant students and families still face residing in Newark.

“It's really shameful that the administration is going after the most vulnerable among us,” said Sinha. “There is no evidence, absolutely zero evidence…that conducting raids in sacred places and sensitive locations enhances public safety.”

In Part II of this series, PSA will speak with Newark residents about how they view current immigration enforcement policies affecting their city and their schools.