Asylum seekers become target in run-up to New Jersey’s legislative races

Immigrants have found themselves at the center of an election-year political fight in New Jersey after the Biden administration reportedly proposed that New York City relocate asylum seekers to Atlantic City’s airport.

The proposal’s details remain murky, but Bloomberg reported the Biden administration suggested 11 federally owned sites, including the airport, where New York City officials can relocate some of the 60,000 migrants who have recently arrived there.

During a television interview Thursday, Gov. Phil Murphy urged Congress to fix the nation’s immigration system and said New Jersey can’t house the asylum seekers and “that’ll continue to be the case.” Murphy, a second-term Democrat and Biden ally, suggested making New Jersey a sanctuary state when he first campaigned for governor in 2017.

“I don’t see any scenario, Eric, where we’re going to be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or frankly, anywhere else in the state,” he told News 12’s Eric Landskroner Thursday.

Accepting migrants from New York City would take “an enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything we can afford,” Murphy said. He hasn’t heard from the White House nor federal officials about any relocation plans, he added.

Murphy’s response drew criticism from immigrant advocates.

Serges Demefack of the American Friends Service Committee said Murphy is taking a “defensive” stance by not considering the airport as a “good short-term position.”

“We have a caring community in New Jersey where immigrants thrive. We want to hear positive messages, not negative,” he said. “What he said was very negative, and the governor needs to go back to the drawing board and find a way to support them.”

The governor should reach out to community groups and churches that house asylum seekers, Demefack suggested. Murphy said last year New Jersey would be “prepared” to accept migrants sent by other states, he added.

“Let’s not play politics with people’s lives, using them as pawns. Enough of that,” Murphy told reporters in September 2022.

In that scenario, Murphy was commenting on accepting migrants the Republican governors of Florida and Texas transported to other states, a tactic largely seen as the governors’ attempt to punish Democratic politicians for what they see as security problems at the southern border. 

Murphy hasn’t gotten a lot of resistance from his fellow Democrats. His allies say accepting Jersey-bound migrants on a bus or two is different than agreeing to the relocation of thousands or tens of thousands of asylum seekers.

Still, there was some pushback.

Sen. Joe Cryan (D-Union) noted that New Jersey housed more than 10,000 Afghan refugees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst last year, and when the Russia-Ukraine war started, Murphy wrote a letter to Biden saying New Jersey was “willing and ready” to accept refugees from Ukraine. The state created a website for Ukrainian migrants to connect with organizations for resources.

“It seems to me that New Jersey has had a history of successful transition with refugees, and we should look to use the same model here when planning for a crisis, especially one with a lack of cohesive national policy,” Cryan said.

Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffar (D-Somerset) said the Biden administration should address the urgent need to process immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. But New Jersey should welcome them, she said.

“These people represent New Jersey values. They’re fleeing danger. They want to work to build a safer, better life for themselves and for their families, and ultimately, to contribute to our country,” Jaffer said. “I truly believe that New Jerseyans are welcoming and that we take to heart the values inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.”

The fight over whether New Jersey has room for asylum seekers is playing out two months before all 120 legislative seats are on the ballot, with the GOP hoping to flip some seats and win more control in Trenton. 

South Jersey Republicans said it would be a “huge public safety concern” to relocate migrants there and accused Biden of allowing thousands of undocumented immigrants to cross the southern border daily.

“Without a doubt, Biden’s refusal to secure the southern border has been disastrous for the country and is destroying our cities. His dereliction of duty is now not only threatening our national security, but also the safety of our residents in South Jersey,” Sen. Mike Testa (R-Cumberland) said.

Atlantic City leaders also expressed opposition during a press conference Friday. The city’s Democratic mayor, Marty Small, said he was “livid” when he read the Bloomberg report, saying “people continuously dump their less fortunate on the great city of Atlantic City.”

The Atlantic City airport, located in Egg Harbor Township, is in the Second Legislative District, which is solidly Republican. But the GOP is hoping to flip the nearby Fourth District. That is represented by three Democrats, though its longtime state senator, Fred Madden, is retiring, and redistricting made the district a shade more GOP-friendly than it was during 2021’s legislative races, putting it in play this November.

The opportunity to blast Biden and Murphy on this issue could give Republicans an edge, said John Froonjian, executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.

“South Jersey Republicans, candidates all over the region, are sending thank you notes to the White House. They jumped on this immediately and are just making political hay out of it,” he said. “Suddenly, this has become a proposal to ‘move immigrants to my backyard,’ and that makes this a local issue instead of a national issue.”

Opposition to any migrant relocation plan also could stem from a fear of hurting tourism, Froonjian added. Atlantic City has been trying to revitalize in recent years, and the airport is used for tourists, not just freight, he said.

“It runs counter to everything local leaders are trying to do here to support the tourism industry, which is one of the major industries in the state but truly an economic driver for Atlantic County especially,” he said. “So I think that’s why we saw such an overwhelmingly negative response from this region.”

Ben Dworkin, founding director of the Rowan University Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship, said these kinds of issues can turn typically sleepy elections on their head.

“For some, it’s an incentive to nationalize these races to pick up the pace, and it helps motivate your party’s most ardent supporters,” Dworkin said.

Sarah Fajardo, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, commended the Murphy administration for policies like expanding driver’s licenses to undocumented citizens and the immigrant trust directive, which limits coordination between federal immigration officials and local law enforcement.

But, she noted, New Jersey is one of the most diverse states, with one in four residents being immigrants.

“This is not the time for ‘not in my backyard’ political games that happen all too often. This is a humanitarian crisis, and everyone must treat it as such,” she said.

The Legislature has virtually no control over immigration policy, and the state likely has little say if the federal government decides to house migrants at the airport since it’s a federal facility, Dworkin added.

“If someone puts money behind it, we can see this as something candidates are talking about,” he said. “But will voters care in November, or are they going to care about dealing with the opioid crisis and how towns deal with affordable housing or crime? They might.”

Dana DiFilippo contributed.