The New Jersey governor dares the federals to look in his home undocumented immigrants hidden in the garage

GOV. New Jersey. Phil Murphy He was criticized on Monday after he seems to say that he was hosting an undocumented immigrant in a garage about his house and daring federal officials in president Donald TrumpThe administration of “trying to get it”.

But while Murphy’s office declined to comment, a source familiar with the situation told NJ Advance Media that the comments were misunderstood and the woman has never lived in her residence.

Murphy’s not assumed comments, a Democrat in his last year in the state, occurred during a public interview on Saturday at Montclair State University with a defense group on the left. Blue Wave New Jersey. The event It was transmitted in the governor’s social networks.

Everything occurs when Trump has promised to make mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and his administration has threatened to punish the officials who interfere. There has been An increase in ice raids Since Trump, Republican, began his second term last month, including one in a fish market in Newark.

Murphy was asked during Saturday how his administration will respond to Trump. On the back of the conversation, during a question about transgender rights, he said an argument he had with the first lady Tammy Murphy About hosting someone, apparently at his home in Middletown in the Navesink River.

“This is not a trans case, but Tammy and I were talking, I don’t want to have too many details, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not trying to get it,” said Murphy. “And we said: Do you know what?

“We cannot turn around, we cannot stop fighting,” he added moments later.

Comments passed largely unnoticed until Mondaywhen media on the right Published stories about them.

But the source familiar with the situation, which spoke on condition of anonymity, said Murphy was talking about “someone in his circle of friends who was worried given everything that is happening”, despite the fact that this person has “legal status” .

Murphy, said the source, was simply saying that he would have offered him a place in the house and that the comments were “flown” of proportion by the conservative media.

“No one has lived in the house,” said the source.

Tom Holman, Trump’s border tsar, said in December that houses undocumented immigrants to know A “violation of the law”. In A memo last monthThe United States Department of Justice ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who believe they are interfering with the Trump administration attempts to take energetic measures against illegal immigration and said they could face criminal charges.

Republicans criticized Murphy on Monday before the source explanation.

“The governor believes he is above the law,” said state assemblyman Erik Peterson, Republican of Hunterdon, in a statement.

Some Trump’s supporters suggested In social networks That ice should Raid Murphy’s house or that must give up or be processed.

When he ran for the first time in 2017, Murphy, a declared progressive democrat, said he was open to do New Jersey A “sanctuary” For undocumented immigrants.

In 2019, the then State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, whom Murphy appointed, issued The Immigrant Trust Directivewhich prohibits police officers, prosecutors and correction officers in New Jersey to participate in the operations of application of ICE civil immigration.

More recently, Murphy has been measured in his response to ice raids. Previously at the Saturday event, he was asked about people who fear being deported and what the State can do.

“The formula will continue to be aggressive legal actions, using the thug pulpit … and then have the rules, constructions, correct executive orders,” Murphy said. “That tends to be the elements of the recipe.”

Then he mentioned how the immigrants’ Trust Directive has been “highly effective,” and has resisted a lot of federal judicial scrutiny.

“I almost feel that we keep our head down here,” sad Murphy. “What we have in place has worked. Let’s do what we do, I don’t want to undo that. “

Murphy, who leaves the position in January 2026, said in an interview with NJ Advance Media last month the state’s reaction to Trump’s immigration directives will depend on the situation.

“If they are going to point, there are more than one million people apparently, I think this is throughout the United States, not in New Jersey, whose asylum cases have already been awarded. These people have lost, but for any reason that they are still In the United States, if you pursue them, I don’t feel that I will put a lot of resistance to it, “said the governor.

“If you persecute people who have committed a serious crime, who are waiting for the award, I don’t think there is much support in that lane,” he added. “That is very different from the deportation of force of forceful instruments. Including very innocent people who escaped the search for asylum because they were being persecuted or physically threatened, or worse, American citizens, that is a problem. “

New Jersey is a state of the left that has one of the largest immigrant populations in the nation to 2.2 millionAccording to the Institute of Migration Policy. Some 475,000 of them illegally entered the United States, according to Estimates from the PEW Research Center.

But immigration is also a difficult issue for Democrats. Trump served much better than expected in New Jersey in last year’s elections, losing it just by 6 percentage points. TO Rutgers-Eagleton survey Last November he discovered that Garden State residents want harder border security and a small majority favor of mass deportation.

Murphy and Trump, meanwhile, have been adverse and friendly over the years. Murphy’s administration fought against Trump policies about immigration, weapons and taxes In court During Trump’s first mandate. But they too collaborated In the government COVID-19 Answer and The Gateway tunnel project.

During His last state of the state of the state Last month, Murphy said “he will never go back to associate with the Trump administration where our priorities are aligned.”

“But just as important, I will never defend our New Jersey values, if they are tested,” added the governor.