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The Trump Department of Homeland Security is clapping back at New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill after she pledged to help members of the public track U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers through an online portal.
After Sherrill, a U.S. Navy veteran, recently announced, “We are going to be standing up a portal, so people can upload all their cell videos and alert people,” adding, “If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out, we want to know.”
In response, a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “This certainly looks like obstruction of justice.”
“This action by the Governor encourages violence against our officers and obstruction of our operations,” the spokesperson went on, pointing out that “our officers are already facing a highly coordinated campaign of violence against them and a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”
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The spokesperson suggested that Sherrill’s policies are the real danger to New Jerseyans, not ICE agents.
“ICE law enforcement would not have to be in the field in New Jersey if we had state and local cooperation. Governor Sherrill is not letting that happen, which puts New Jerseyans in danger,” the spokesperson said.
DHS pointed to just a few of ICE’s recent arrests in New Jersey, which they said include pedophiles, rapists and murderers.
“While Governor Sherrill continues to encourage agitators to obstruct law enforcement and release pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and murderers onto New Jersey’s streets, our brave law enforcement will continue to risk their lives to arrest heinous criminals in New Jersey,” said the spokesperson.
DHS said that it recently arrested a Mexican criminal illegal alien named Jose Ortega Villalva, who it said is convicted of sex offense against a child, fondling and molestation of a minor.
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Another illegal arrested in New Jersey is Ecuadoran national Rodrigo Roman Basantes, who the agency said is convicted of endangering the welfare of a child through sexual contact and sexual assault of a victim under 13.
A third, Felix Quintana Diaz, from Cuba, was also recently arrested by ICE in New Jersey and is convicted of homicide.
Wilmer Patzan Pirir, a criminal illegal alien from Guatemala, was arrested and has been convicted of making a terroristic threat.
The agency also said ICE had arrested Manuel Mejia Morales, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, who is convicted of rape and assault.
In response, a spokesperson for the governor told Fox News Digital that “keeping New Jerseyans safe is Governor Sherrill’s top priority,” and that Sherrill and Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport “will announce additional actions to protect New Jerseyans from federal overreach” in the coming days.
Sherrill cited the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in confrontations with ICE agents in Minneapolis. She accused agents of shooting Pretti “execution style,” which she called “unacceptable.”
“They have not been forthcoming,” the governor said of ICE. “They will pick people up. They will not tell us who they are. They will not tell us if they’re here legally. They won’t check. They’ll pick up American citizens.”
Regarding the planned portal, Sherrill said, “We want documentation, and we are going to make sure we get it.”
These comments also drew criticism from the White House, which backed ICE and federal immigration officers in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, remarked, “If Sherill was as committed to tracking down criminal illegal aliens as she was ICE officers, New Jersey residents would be much safer.”
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Jackson told Fox News Digital, “ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults because of dangerous, untrue smears by elected Democrats.”
“Just the other day, an officer had his finger bitten off by a radical left-wing rioter,” she continued. “ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities, and local officials should work with them, not against them.”
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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