Jackson Township Mayor Jennifer Kuhn is calling on state lawmakers to roll back New Jersey’s sanctuary-style immigration policies after a 9-month-old boy was killed last week when an illegal immigrant allegedly struck his family with a car in a grocery store parking lot.
“If our police pull somebody over and they’re undocumented… they can’t call the federal agencies, they can’t call ICE. That needs to change,” Kuhn said in an interview Thursday. “Condolences at this point are not enough. At this point, leadership needs to step in. And we have to do something.”
Authorities say Maria Cobon-Guzman, a 20-year-old Guatemalan national who did not have a driver’s license, struck a mother pushing a stroller carrying her 9-month-old son and 5-year-old daughter in the parking lot of a kosher grocery store in Jackson on Aug. 28. The infant died, and the mother and 5-year-old were critically injured. Cobon-Guzman has been charged with manslaughter.
Prosecutors also charged Ariadna Lazaro-Flores, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, with endangering the welfare of an incompetent person, alleging she allowed Cobon-Guzman to drive her vehicle knowing she lacked a license.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, both women entered the country illegally during the Biden administration. Lazaro-Flores crossed the border five times in October 2023 and was removed each time, DHS said. Cobon-Guzman entered once that same month but was released into the country’s interior without vetting. An immigration judge ordered her removed on July 31.
The Policy at the Center of the Debate
Kuhn’s criticism targets New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, first implemented under former Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018. The directive generally bars police from asking about a person’s immigration status, notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when someone is released from custody, or sharing certain non-public personal information for civil immigration enforcement.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation in March codifying the directive into state law. In February, she also signed an executive order barring ICE agents from using nonpublic areas of state property to stage or conduct operations without a judicial warrant.
Kuhn wants the Jackson Township Council to pass a resolution urging the state to end those policies. “I know that there’s other towns around in Ocean County and in other counties that are also doing the same. Something needs to change,” she said.
Supporters Defend the Directive
Backers of the policy argue it builds trust between immigrant communities and local police, encouraging victims and witnesses to report crimes without fear that routine police contact will trigger immigration scrutiny.
Dan Prochilo, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, defended the directive and other measures signed by Sherrill. He said county jails and state prisons can still notify ICE when someone is released if they are charged with or convicted of certain violent or serious crimes, including assault, stalking, criminal sexual contact, arson and burglary.
Jails can also notify ICE if a suspect was convicted of a felony within the past five years or is under a final deportation order, Prochilo said, adding that “such notice has been provided regularly in appropriate cases by New Jersey law enforcement agencies since the Immigrant Trust Directive took effect in 2019.”
Sherrill’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment.
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