Trump Admin Challenge To NJ Cities' Sanctuary Policies To Proceed During Shutdown

By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor

November 5, 2025

A federal judge on Tuesday denied the federal government’s request to pause a challenge to sanctuary policies in four New Jersey cities, rejecting arguments that the federal government’s shutdown prevents U.S. Department of Justice attorneys from working on the case.

U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin’s order will allow the federal government’s lawsuit over laws that restrict when local law enforcement in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken can aid federal immigration enforcement efforts to continue.

Department of Justice attorneys had requested a stay, arguing the federal government shutdown, which stretched into its 28th day Tuesday, bars them from working on the civil case. The federal government wanted the matter postponed until the government reopens.

Chief District Court Judge Renée Marie Bumb, earlier this mont,h stayed most civil cases to which the United States is a party, but she allowed the challenge to the cities’ sanctuary policies to continue.

Padin on Tuesday challenged whether the shutdown would actually prevent federal attorneys from working on the case, noting that the initial complaint alleged a “crisis of illegal immigration” that caused the murder of American citizens and underscored “the gravity and emergency of this present danger and imminent threat.”

“In the Court’s view, the serious nature of Plaintiff’s allegations warrants this action proceeding in its ordinary course,” Padin wrote in her order.

In their letter requesting a stay, Department of Justice attorneys said the shutdown barred officials from working even voluntarily except in emergencies that threaten human life or property.

Former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who is representing Newark and Hoboken, noted in a letter to Padin that other courts had allowed similar cases to continue because the federal government continued to fund immigration enforcement despite the shutdown.

Grewal added that courts around the country had rejected bids to overrule local laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The Trump administration’s suit charges the cities’ sanctuary policies run afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which states federal law supersedes state law so long as the laws fall within the scope of the powers the U.S. Constitution grants the federal government.

The cities argue the supremacy clause does not apply here because their sanctuary policies regulate local — not federal— law enforcement.

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