immigration has been a major issue in the country and on the campaign trail here in New Jersey both parties have taken it on with widely different policy proposals and with primary election day almost here senior political correspondent David Cruz looks at all the ways it's been addressed by the candidates running for governor it's a hot domestic issue with international roots and as is often the case a national issue that has found focus in New Jersey and that means it's right in the center of New Jerseys gubanatorial primaries and because it's in the center of the gubanatorial primary it can sometimes be hard to figure out where anybody stands because well New Jersey if you understand the habits you're sad as sad but there are some differences even among Republicans who are especially in the Trump era generally averse to expanding immigration access we have 900,000 people who are here illegally and it's an enormous drain on our uh law enforcement it's an enormous drain on our schools on our infrastructure first responders hospitals pew Research puts the number of undocumented here at closer to half that but Spadia who often quotes questionable statistics used to be a little more liberal on the issue he differs from fellow candidate John Bramnik who in a sea of immigration hawks remains unabashedly moderate i believe there should be a path to citizenship uh I don't believe that that is some crazy idea we were close to that years ago if someone's been here 20 years they've been paying their taxes why not set up a system the leading Republican Jack Chedarelli recently endorsed by the president has been dextrous on this issue tough on the outside in the quest for MAGA acceptance but wanting to assure general election voters that the fear of mass deportations is being somewhat exaggerated based on the president's rhetoric on this subject I do not believe he's going to deport all x million people throughout the country and let's not forget in his first term he did offer up deferred action for the dreamers democrats who control the legislature and governor's office have been rhetorically pro-immigrant rights but with the entire assembly up for election this fall and Republicans having successfully turned the issue in their favor the majority party has been slow rolling the issue most notably by not moving legislation the Immigrant Trust Act that discourages localities from cooperating with immigration enforcement actions the progressive candidates like New York Mayor Ras Baraka warn against being tentative your presence here in their mind is breaking the law they want to remove everyone and if you don't understand that then we're confused and we have to make sure that everybody understands that we are all in danger but moderate Steve Sweeney says efforts like the immigrant trust directive may sound good but in the current environment especially actually accomplish little that immigrant trust doctrine is not protecting one person all you're doing is giving false hope to people that they are safe they're not safe as long as we have a president that is violating the laws due process that's what separates New Jersey and this country from everywhere else i think if this is your issue if this is something that really motivates you then you are likely to be um attracted to Sweeny's position which is clear or Baraka's position which is clear uh I think if it's not your main issue then you may be more interested in the nuance of the rest of the field whether it's the ICE raids here in Newark or the new list of 21 New Jersey towns and counties being targeted for their sanctuary policies or the arrest of Mayor Rasparaka or the charges against Congresswoman Lmonica Macyver the Department of Justice is looking to make an example of New Jersey what the state does in reaction to that will depend very much on who voters say should be their next governor i'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News