DOJ sues New Jersey over Sherrill executive order barring ICE

On Feb. 11, 2026, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed Executive Order No. 12, which bars ICE agents and other federal civil immigration officers from entering nonpublic areas of state-owned property — including state correctional facilities, courthouses, and operational bases — without a judicial warrant or court order. The order also prohibits the state from allowing federal immigration agencies to use state facilities as staging areas, processing centers, or operational bases for civil immigration enforcement.

On Feb. 23, 2026, the DOJ filed a 21-page lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark. The complaint makes three distinct legal arguments: that federal immigration law preempts the state order under the Supremacy Clause, that the order unlawfully regulates the federal government, and that it discriminates against federal agents by treating them differently than state and local law enforcement. The DOJ is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the order from being enforced.

The lawsuit's most striking detail is buried inside it: the DOJ admitted that ICE agents had violated 52 New Jersey court orders since early December 2025 — a violation in nearly one of every ten cases. That admission appeared in the same document accusing New Jersey of obstructing federal law enforcement. A federal judge in Minnesota had separately found in January 2026 that ICE violated a man's Fourth Amendment rights by claiming an administrative warrant allowed warrantless home entry.

Sherrill, who won the governorship in November 2025 by a wide margin, launched a public portal through the New Jersey attorney general's office where residents can submit video and photo evidence of alleged ICE misconduct. She responded to the lawsuit at an unrelated press conference: 'I think what the federal government needs to be focused on right now — instead of attacking states like New Jersey working to keep people safe — is actually training their ICE agents with some modicum of training, like any law enforcement officer in the State of New Jersey would have.'

Attorney General Pam Bondi framed the lawsuit around public safety: 'Federal agents are risking their lives to keep New Jersey citizens safe, and yet New Jersey's leaders are enacting policies designed to obstruct and endanger law enforcement.' The DOJ cited a Third Circuit precedent, CoreCivic, Inc. v. Murphy (2023), which upheld federal supremacy in immigration detention against a prior New Jersey governor's order as the primary legal basis for expecting to prevail.

Acting state Attorney General Jennifer Davenport rejected the federal framing entirely. 'Instead of working with us to promote public safety and protect our state's residents, the Trump Administration is wasting its resources on a pointless legal challenge to Gov. Sherrill's executive order,' Davenport said. 'Under Gov. Sherrill's leadership, New Jersey will continue to ensure the safety of our state's immigrant communities. We look forward to defending this executive order in court.'

The New Jersey case is one of several DOJ lawsuits filed in early 2026 targeting state and local sanctuary policies. The Trump administration has also sued New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Colorado. The administration's broader theory — grounded in Trump's April 2025 Executive Order 14287 — asserts that the federal government has 'plenary authority' over immigration and that any state action limiting federal enforcement is unconstitutional.

The central legal question before the court is whether a state may control how federal agents use state-owned property, or whether such restrictions unconstitutionally interfere with federal authority. Courts have historically given federal immigration enforcement broad latitude under the Supremacy Clause, but the extent to which a state may regulate access to its own facilities has not been definitively resolved in the Third Circuit.