[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We are joined once again by Amy Torres, Executive Director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

Amy, good to see you again.

- Thank you so much for having me, Steve.

- You got it.

Listen, it's a moving target.

We are taping on the 18th of March, it'll be seen later.

How serious is the immigration crisis in the state and nation, A, and B, why does Newark, New Jersey seem to be at the epicenter of this situation?

- Yeah, I mean, let's talk about the state of immigration nationally, and we've seen a lot of the cases happening here in New Jersey, too.

I mean, first, we have a doctor from Brown University who was deported despite a court order.

We have an electrical engineer from Germany who has a green card who was interrogated so harshly that he was hospitalized.

We have a woman who married a Trump supporter, and when she and her husband were coming back from their honeymoon in Puerto Rico, you know, not, not outside the bounds of US border enforcement.

This isn't a foreign country, it's a US territory.

But upon coming back from their honeymoon, was detained by ICE.

A 10-year-old brain cancer patient who was a US citizen, a US citizen in Chicago, who was detained and handcuffed for over 10 hours.

So the state of immigration is actually not really focusing on who the president said he would be going after.

He said that there's this whole hoard and this entire criminal network, despite overwhelming evidence that immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than native born US citizens.

But if this is the whole mass that he claimed to exist, why are green card holders being interrogated to the point at which they're hospitalized?

Why are US citizens being detained?

And why are people who are electrical engineers and doctors facing threats of deportation?

So I think if you're still thinking about this as an immigration issue, that needs to stop.

This is really an authoritarian regime issue.

We're using these major weaponization of police and ICE officers to violate people's civil liberties.

- But Amy, at the same time, every poll I've looked at, and you look at the same polls.

You live this every day.

A significant number of New Jerseyans and Americans believe that the immigration, illegal immigration issue needs to be addressed.

How the heck do we find balance between fighting against the things that you just said, acknowledging those things are wrong, but at the same time deporting those who are not in this country legally, which most people support?

- Well, I think most people support that because for years upon end, we've been questioning the legitimacy of people's presence here.

I mean, this stretches all the way back toward questioning whether President Barack Obama was actually a US citizen or not.

And if you hear that year upon year, cycle after cycle, of course you get brainwashed to the point that you believe this imaginary thing.

- But Amy, respectfully, there is a problem.

There is a problem.

Are you saying you don't acknowledge that there is a problem with illegal immigration?

It's a question of- - I totally acknowledge that.

- Whether it's hyperbole, or people exaggerate it, or the media focuses on it, and politicians take advantage of it, say that's all true.

But you acknowledge there is a problem with illegal immigration that has to be addressed from a policy point of view?

- I absolutely agree that the immigration system is fundamentally broken.

That you are more likely to interact with the immigration system and be set up to fail and lose status just as the family that we had here in Haddon Township, New Jersey, right?

They've done everything right.

The system failed them.

The mother ended up in detention, the father- - I saw that, by the way, check out NJ Spotlight News.

There's a great story about that.

And also it's a national news story.

That entire community, Amy, came together to support that mother of a business, right?

The son was speaking on behalf of the family, the entire community, and the vast majority are American born citizens who were saying this is wrong.

That's not what most Americans support.

Is that fair to say, Amy?

What's going on right now is not what most Americans support.

- Most American support are so divorced from the everyday issue, they're so far away from understanding the conditions that their neighbors face, that they are reacting to this larger apparatus of media that's telling them, oh, every immigrant that exists- - There's gang members from Venezuela.

You gotta get rid of them.

- Right, exactly.

Luis Rivera, he has a Michael Jordan and Air Jordan tattoo.

Send him to Guantanamo Bay.

That's what they're saying, if you look- - What did they think the tattoo was?

- Ask an ICE officer.

I mean, I'm sure you know this is part of the same thing where you look a certain way, you have a certain accent, you have a big scary tattoo, happens to be an Air Jordan tattoo.

But that was enough for ICE officers to say that he had gang affiliation and he was one of the first people sent to Guantanamo Bay.

So I hear you, Steve.

I know what the public opinion is.

I also know that there has been a multi-year strategy to delude the public into thinking this way, despite when you talk to everyday New Jerseyans, when you talk to long-term residents of this country, they will tell you the system is designed to make them fall out of status.

- And what is the Immigrant Trust Act, and why is it so important?

- The Immigrant Trust Act takes some laws and protections that we already have in New Jersey and codifies them into law so that whatever should happen in the next governorship, whatever should happen years down the road, New Jersey is very clear that when it comes to interacting with the federal government, we're going to ask for our constitutional rights first.

What the Immigrant Trust Act says is that if you work for the state of New Jersey, and if an ICE officer asks you to hand over information about someone, that you first ask, do you have a judicial warrant with this person's name clearly and correctly spelled?

If they do, you are required by federal law to work with them.

If they don't, the state of New Jersey has the right, every person has this right to say, "Without a judicial warrant, I'm not going to comply."

All the Immigrant Trust Act does is clarify that this is the script that state agencies should use if ICE officers ever come asking for health enrollment information or for after school information, or for anything else that people in New Jersey may go to the state to seek services for.

- Amy, got a minute left.

Delaney Hall in Newark, a thousand bed privately operated facility.

It's a new detention center for those who are apprehended by ICE and are going there.

Why is that an issue?

- Well, look, we have, as of Friday, we have a historic ICE and CBP budget, nearly $10 billion, 10 billion with a B.

- What was that acronym for what?

- For ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration Customs Enforcement.

And so $10 billion, that's all of your Medicaid dollars that have been stripped away, Medicare, social Security, every government service that has been cut has now been put into immigration enforcement.

Not only that, it's being funneled into private prison corporations.

Geo Group, who owns and will operate Delaney Hall, was the first corporation to max out their campaign contributions to Donald Trump's reelection campaign.

So Delaney Hall is terrible for all of the reasons that we've discussed.

Lack of due process, profiling, and surveillance.

But this is yet another example of the billionaire class profiting off of this administration.

The net profit of Delaney Hall is going to bring in an additional billion dollars for Geo Group, and its sister companies like Core Civics stand to benefit just as much as well.

So we see these mega corporations profiting off of our civil liberties being trampled in the name of national security and safety, - Amy Torres is Executive Director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

And also know that we have other folks with different points of view, particularly Republican legislators and others who will be joining us today in our taping.

They may see it differently, but you should check out the facts, folks, and check out the website of Amy's organization, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

Amy, thank you once again for joining us.

We'll continue the conversation, I promise.

- Thank you.

Bye-bye.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

IBEW Local 102.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Operating Engineers, Local 825.

New Brunswick Development Corporation.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

NJM Insurance Group.

United Airlines.

The New Jersey Education Association.

And by these public spirited organizations, individuals and associations committed to informing New Jersey citizens about the important issues facing the Garden State.

Promotional support provided by ROI-NJ.

And by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.