N.J. delegation splits on controversial immigration, international court bills

The new Republican-controlled Congress is starting off 2025 with a pair of controversial bills on illegal immigration and international courts that stalled in the prior Congress, exposing substantial divisions within New Jersey’s congressional delegation.

One of the two bills is the Laken Riley Act, which requires ICE to detain undocumented immigrants charged with certain crimes; it was named for 22-year-old Laken Riley, who was killed last year by a man present in the United States illegally. While many Democrats have criticized the bill as overbroad and anti-immigrant, a large contingent of the party voted for it on Tuesday in the House, where it passed 264-159; the Senate is beginning debate on the same bill this afternoon.

Republican Reps. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), Chris Smith (R-Manchester), and Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) all supported the bill, and while Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) was not present for the vote, he entered a statement into the congressional record indicating that he would have voted yes had he been there (he also supported the bill when it came up last session).

“I hear a lot of words, a lot of debate, a lot of discussion,” Van Drew said on the House floor before the vote. “But I’ve got to tell you, to the family of Laken Riley and to so many others across the United States of America, words don’t matter. Condolences don’t count. Speeches don’t do it… Don’t give condolences. Vote for the bill.”

Seven New Jersey Democrats voted against the bill, including Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), who represents a district carried by incoming President Donald Trump; Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) said she would have joined them in opposing it had she been in Washington. (Gottheimer’s and Sherrill’s absence from the vote – likely due to their ongoing gubernatorial campaigns – has drawn some flack from their gubernatorial opponents, though neither of their votes would have changed the outcome.)

“Everyone on this soil deserves due process rights,” said new Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delran). “That was the main reason to vote against it. To be snatched and detained without a hearing and deported is un-American, and strikes against the basic principles of fair play and a judicial system that elevates fair play as a standard.”

“These anti-immigration bills, to me, are just not productive,” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) said. “They’re not fair, they’re not right. We just can’t put a stamp on all immigrants and put them in one box and persecute all of them because Republicans feel a certain way.”

The other contentious bill, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, drew more support from New Jersey’s Democratic delegation. Reps. Gottheimer, Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), Donald Norcross (D-Camden), and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) all supported the bill, which imposes sanctions on International Criminal Court officials after they issued an arrest warrant last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; it passed 243-140.

Reps. Pou, Conaway, McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) opposed the bill, and Sherrill would have voted no as well had she been in attendance for the vote. On the Republican side, Smith and Kean supported the bill, and Van Drew did not vote.

“The ICC’s actions support Hamas’ explicitly antisemitic and genocidal campaign of terror against Israel, and Congress must respond in the most forceful way possible,” Smith said of the bill, which previously passed the House last June before petering out in the Senate. “The ICC is a rogue actor on the world stage, and the United States must have a more effective long-term approach for how to respond to it.”