New Jersey governor’s attempt to ‘lower the temperature’ is drawing heat instead

NEWARK, New Jersey — Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s decision to send State Police to anti-ICE protests in Newark was meant to keep the Trump administration from escalating the situation. Instead, it has opened her administration to criticism from a fellow Democrat and others on the left.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said on Tuesday the State Police’s efforts to quell protests outside a federal immigration facility over the weekend “kind of resembled what ICE was doing in the first place.”

Sherrill deployed state troopers to an industrial corner of the city late last week in a bid to prevent the Trump administration from sending more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the scene outside Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed, privately run immigration detention facility that has been at the center of controversy for more than a year.

The new governor, a moderate Democrat, feared President Donald Trump could turn Newark into the next Minneapolis, where two residents were killed during a campaign by federal agents in the city. Sherrill said she deployed the State Police to “lower the temperature” and so Trump didn’t have a “pretext” to intervene further in Newark.

But the move also created competing storylines starting on Friday, distracting from Democrats’ attempt to close Delaney Hall, and opening her up to criticism of police tactics.

Dozens of protestors were arrested over the weekend, with state officials saying some violated state-designated protest zones created by Sherrill, threw items at law enforcement and set a tire on fire in the street.

“Look, the State Police is a sword. If you're gonna use them, you have to expect people to get cut,” Baraka said at a Tuesday morning press conference.

The mayor’s appearance, pegged to a federal lawsuit he’s pushing to close the facility, followed a largely uneventful Monday night where Newark Police took charge of enforcing a partial curfew near the detention center. On Tuesday, the Sherrill administration announced a separate state lawsuit against GEO Group, the private operator of Delaney Hall, so the Department of Health can get access to assess conditions there. GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baraka said he wants to end a partial curfew he imposed near Delaney Hall later this week. He also criticized Sherrill’s designated protest zones, which he wants to close following what he called “collective conversation” with the Sherrill administration. The zones kept protesters away from Delaney Hall but nearby on a long industrial block.

In recent days, amid what Democrats and immigration advocates said were deteriorating conditions and a hunger strike by detainees — which the Trump administration has denied — an influx of protestors clashed with federal authorities outside Delaney Hall. The Trump administration threatened to send more agents to the scene, including customs officials from a nearby airport, which would have upended international travel in and out of New York City.

In response, Sherrill sent in the State Police late last week to avoid a Minneapolis-style campaign by federal agents in Newark.

“As a governor — it's a hard choice to make. Do you let Trump send ICE or do you use State Police, who you have more influence on how they behave? That was the choice,” said Patricia Campos-Medina, a longtime progressive organizer who served as an adviser to Sherrill’s 2025 campaign.

Baraka, who ran to Sherrill’s left in last year’s Democratic primary and is perhaps the most prominent progressive politician in the state, said the governor “acted as she was supposed to.” He said White House border czar Tom Homan had threatened to bring “tactical units” to the state if the situation wasn’t brought under control.

But Baraka’s criticism of the State Police lends weight to criticisms Sherrill has faced from the left. Make the Road New Jersey, one of the state’s prominent immigrants-rights groups, also compared State Police to federal immigration agents, and called the response an “absolute disgrace.”

The intervention from state officials also set up an unusual alignment where the Trump administration highlighted videos of State Police arresting protestors.

New Jersey political social media influencers — which Sherrill has granted exclusive access during her campaign and in office — have expressed betrayal from the governor over her handling of the situation. A New Jersey climate organizer said that Sherrill would be a “one-term governor,” citing the State Police intervention.

“This is a career-defining moment for Mikie,” Ben Dziobek, the climate organizer, told POLITICO. “She decided to side with the DHS and ICE.”

State Sen. Raj Mukherji, a progressive Democrat, praised the governor for having public safety front of mind, but had criticism for law enforcement. He said that over the weekend there was "chaos and confusion” and “in all likelihood, peaceable assembly and peaceful protest were infringed.”

"She's in a difficult position because she's trying to prevent an ICE surge — we saw how violent their so-called, you know, enforcement efforts were,” he said in an interview, referring to federal agents.

State Assemblymember Paul Kanitra, a Republican, who has made opposition to illegal immigration one of his top issues in the Statehouse, said Sherrill has been trying to placate both sides but instead alienated both.

“I think she probably doesn’t want to become the next Tim Walz,” he said in an interview, referring to the Minnesota governor.

A spokesperson for the governor referred POLITICO to a statement from Sherrill on Monday evening, where she said she was “grateful for our partnership with the City of Newark and Mayor Baraka as we’ve ensured that ICE has not surged into our streets.” The Newark Police Department is currently leading law enforcement operations outside Delaney Hall.

The debate over police tactics was, even Democrats seemed to acknowledge, risking their core message: Close Delaney Hall.

“We can't have the attention turned to the escalation that's going on outside and away from what's happening in the property, because our real reason for being out here is to make sure Delaney Hall is closed,” Baraka said.

The Newark Police Department was recently released from a federal consent decree, which stemmed from allegations by federal investigators that civil rights abuses were pervasive in the city police force.

“I think our officers are more trained in deescalation,” Baraka said. “Not because we were just born that way, but because we just went through a consent decree.”

A state official, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation, said Newark Police were with the State Police all weekend and that State Police removed people Sunday night who would not leave the area.

On Monday night, as Newark Police were enforcing the partial curfew that forced protesters to relocate from one long industrial block near Delaney Hall to another, only a few handfuls of demonstrators remained. One woman with a bull horn shouted, “No justice, no peace, fuck the racist police” as a group of Black police officers urged her to move along.