New Jersey Governor Admits to Housing Undocumented Immigrant Above Garage

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy
Reuters

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has admitted that he has been allowing an undocumented immigrant to live above his garage as the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on migrants.

The Democrat governor revealed that a woman without legal citizenship status in the U.S. had been staying with him at his Middletown home during an event at Montclair State University on Saturday.

“I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there’s someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy said. “And we said, you know what, let’s have her live at our house above our garage. And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.”

“We cannot roll over, we cannot stop fighting,” he added.

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The revelation comes as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Donald Trump has been conducting raids in the Garden state as part of his promise to target illegal immigration.

Since taking office last month, Trump had signed a series of executive orders and enacted several policies aimed at undocumented immigration, including ending birthright citizenship and suspending the nation’s asylum system.

With Trump’s immigration crackdown underway, the president’s loyalists blasted Murphy for going against his wishes.

Elon Musk, the wealthiest member of Trump’s entourage, took to X to react monosyllabically Monday afternoon: “Wow.”

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Meanwhile, Republican State Assemblyman Erik Peterson called out Murphy, claiming, “The governor thinks he’s above the law,” Insider NJ reported. “Instead of enforcing our duly enacted laws, he’s breaking them and telling others to do the same. It’s outrageous.”

Peterson added that ICE should check on the undocumented immigrant’s safety, saying: “It’s about power, political theater, and maybe cheap labor to clean his mansion.”

Trump’s border czar, Tom Holman, said in December that knowingly harboring undocumented immigrants from ICE is a “violation of the law.”