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EXCLUSIVE: Sanctuary policies are leading to dangerous situations by making it harder for ICE to do its job, Republican critics argued after an illegal immigrant fled agents and crashed on a major New Jersey highway, injuring the wife of a Democratic mayor.
The Wednesday crash is fueling a renewed fight over New Jersey’s limits on cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities. Republicans are arguing Sherrill’s approval of the “Trust Directive” creates public-safety risks by limiting the ability of ICE to work with police officers. They also contend that Democrats are wrongheaded to respond to such incidents by calling for ICE’s abolition rather than stronger enforcement.
“This is just the latest in a long line of traffic incidents and vehicular incidents that wouldn’t occur if New Jersey didn’t have our sanctuary status that got codified as soon as Gov. Sherrill came into office,” Assemblyman Paul Kanitra, R-Point Pleasant Beach, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Friday.
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“Abolish ICE” has been a popular slogan among progressive activists. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“We all fought against it. We told them that this would create chaos, and it seems like Democrats are unable to take accountability for their own actions.”
Kanitra said Sherrill and other Democrats have been unable to recognize the connection between their support for the “Trust Directive” sanctuary policy — signed into law by the governor this year — and incidents such as the one in Middlesex County this week.
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Rye Barcott and Gov. Mikie Sherrill attend a conversation about Barcott’s new book “Courage Will Save Us” with Gov. Wes Moore and Mark Drilling at 92NY on June 9, 2026, in New York City. (Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)
“Democrats seemingly have an inability to take accountability for their own actions here. They’re unable to even recognize the chaos that they’re creating, and they’re shouting and screaming at everybody else trying to find somebody to blame. It’s somewhat ridiculous,” Kanitra said.
“You kind of reap what you sow,” he said, adding that at least two people in his district have been killed in incidents connected to illegal immigrants behind the wheel.
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Kanitra also pointed to a separate case in his county in which an illegal immigrant allegedly drove a vehicle into a family outside a kosher supermarket, killing an infant.
“They got behind the wheel, and they wound up killing an innocent toddler in the process,” he said, calling the circumstances of the situation “absolutely abhorrent.”
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Wednesday’s crash saw an illegal immigrant flee a targeted ICE operation, the agency told Fox News Digital, and speed off.
The suspect drove onto U.S. 130 — the heavily trafficked spine of the Trenton-Camden corridor — and collided with a Tesla in North Brunswick after running a stoplight.
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One of the people injured in the other vehicle was the wife of East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen. Fox News Digital reached out to Cohen and North Brunswick Mayor Francis Womack III for comment.
“After repeated verbal warnings and due to officer safety concerns, ICE officers relied on their training and attempted to safely remove the illegal alien [from their car]. The illegal alien then proceeded to flee at a high rate of speed and collided with other vehicles,” an ICE spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital.
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Sen. Mike Testa, R-Vineland, said Cape May County, one of the counties in his district, along with Monmouth County, fought hard but unsuccessfully against Sherrill and others to be able to engage with ICE through 287(g) interagency cooperation agreements.
The incident Wednesday showed why they are integral to keeping the public safe, he said.
“I think it has only emboldened illegal aliens to engage in illegal behavior. This illegal alien was stopped lawfully by federal authorities, ran through a red light, fleeing federal authorities and unfortunately ran into the mayor of East Brunswick’s wife.”
He said there has been little movement among Democratic leadership to address the troubling trend, but at least one member of the majority — Sen. Brian Stack, who is also the mayor of Union City — told him that, in an all-encompassing sense, laws on the books must be enforced.
Watson Coleman, whose district includes the area where the crash occurred, responded differently.
“Today, it appears an ICE involved car chase resulted in an accident involving the wife of the Mayor of East Brunswick. Abolish ICE,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., tweeted.
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Testa said that while Democrats’ “silence is deafening” writ-large, Watson Coleman’s call to abolish ICE shows that some Democrats are responding to the incident by targeting federal immigration enforcement rather than the driver.
“This is just another example of lawlessness. And sadly, there’s been a stamp of approval from radical leftists like Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman saying ICE should be abolished rather than actually punishing the criminal that put multiple citizens’ lives at risk,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Watson Coleman and Sherrill for comment.
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As for his county’s wish to forge a 287(g) agreement with ICE one day, he said it shows there are parts of the state that still believe in law and order.
“And we believe quite literally that citizenship should have its privileges. I’ve made this comment many times,” he said.
Testa accused Watson Coleman and Sherrill of supporting policies that make it harder for federal authorities to arrest and remove illegal immigrants.
“You know, I’m a child of the ’80s — and the old American Express commercial was ‘membership has its privileges’ — well, citizenship should have its privileges,” he said.
