Major funding for public use is permitted in part by those who NJM Insurance Group.

serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

And, by the PSEG foundation.

BRIANA: tonight, improving public safety in the capital city -- turn Trenton unveils new policies for the city's police department in response to a scathing report.

Also, this sudden I.C.E.

rate in South Jersey leaves residents on and while Mayo N -- the Mayor of Newark pushes back.

Plus, Mountain concerns over potential Medicaid cuts for vulnerable residents despite promises from Republicans that the federal program will remain untouched.

>> We need to health care.

We need the support.

Briana: And tonight we hear the inspiring story of a Ukrainian refugee who received life-changing treatment here in New Jersey.

>> every day I was finding something that I forgot how to do things.

And every day was a surprise.

Oh, I can do this.

I can do this!

Briana: "NJSpotlightNews" begins right now.

♪ ANNOUNCER: from NJPBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Briana: Good evening and thanks for joining us this Friday night.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

We begin with top headlines.

First, leaders in the state's capital city are going to change it's beleaguered Police Department, displayed major shakeups of the Department of Justice which order the fixes.

The Trenton Mayor outlined new policies within the department in response to a skating 2023 DOJ probe that found the city's police were violating residents' constitutional rights through excessive use of force, illegal stop and searches, and lack of training.

The Trenton PD has strengthened into the Levere's reviews of those excessive force complaints, disbanded its violent crimes and street crimes task forces, which were heavily criticized in the report, rolled out more community street teams love the increased training for officers.

In April the city will also launch what is called a city staff program, hosting live, in person monthly forums where residents can share concerns directly with city leaders, or follow up with complaints that have already made.

>> these reforms are not just empty promises, they are actions that speak louder than words.

We believe we can achieve both effective policing and protecting the right of our community members.

That is why despite the current challenges and uncertainties, we continue to engage in constructive dialogue with the DOJ to develop a changes that will benefit both the police department and the city.

BRIANA: also tonight, a federal judge has blocked the mass firing of federal workers by the Trump Administration.

At a hearing, a San Francisco judge ordered to the Office of Personnel Management to reverse of the directive that initiated the mass layoffs of probationary employees, and said the terminations were probably illegal.

The ruling is one of the biggest roadblocks so far in the Administration's efforts to slash the federal workforce.

The court order states that OPM has no authority to hire more fire employees in other agencies.

Lawyers for the White House argued that OPM offered guidance to those departments, not a directive.

But the judge wasn't buying it.

After seeing evidence that workers who were fired had glowing performance reviews from supervisors.

Still, Buttigieg's decision does not mean that terminated employees will automatically be rehired, or that future firings won't happen.

Another hearing is scheduled for much for your team.

Some consumers are taking part in an economic blackout today.

24 hours of refraining from spending money, aside from that small businesses or four essential needs.

The boycott was loosely organized by the grassroots group, peoples union the USA, to push back against what it sees is a harmful influence of billionaires and big corporations.

The movement started of social media, touting itself as a way for working Americans to take back their power amid surging housing costs and stubborn inflation that has driven up the cost of groceries and other everyday goods.

The spending ban is largely focused on major retailers like Amazon and Walmart, and also corporations that have rolled back DEI policies.

But consumer experts say it's unlikely to make a dent in the bottom lines of the company is being targeted, or the U.S. economy as a whole, since the effort lacks any clear demands.

Yet they also conceded the effort gained so much traction because of real public anger right now with the American economy, and politics.

the Trump administration on Thursday announced it will open the largest immigrant detention center on the East Coast, right here in Newark oh.

A 1000 bed facility at Delaney Hall near Newark airport.

It is as the White House continues its mass deportation efforts.

Delaney Hall housed immigrant detainees from 2011 to 2017, and its private owner, GEO Group, trying to reopen since.

Amid a legal battle with the state over a law barring private and public companies from contracting with I.C.E.

to house detainees.

Immigrant advocates and many Democrats immediately blasted the 15-year, $1 billion contract, including Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka, who said the detention center isn't welcome in his city.

He joins me now.

Mayor, good to talk to you.

A lot happening.

In your statement, you said that GEO group have not reached out for the proper permits or property use requirements.

What exactly are those, and what legal recourse do you have to push back on this, which you have said you will do?

Guest: We have the same records we have what any other developer or building -- first you have to get a change of use permitting, that the planning board has not done.

If you work on a building, you have to get permits to do that.

They didn't get any city permits to start work or finish work.

And once the work is done, it has to be inspected.

This is the code of the state, and the municipalities is the same.

They could have gotten private permits and folks to do inspections at, but we still have to sign off on that and we have not done that.

So I don't know how they got permits.

They haven't gotten a fire permit, elevator permits, and they don't have a certificate of occupancy.

The certificate of occupancy is what all buildings need to ensure they can open and people can go inside of them.

Even a temporary seal is issued to some buildings so they can start allowing people in as they finish small things and they don't even have that.

So for them to say they are ready to open, it's just not true.

Briana: They get a timeline of June.

A couple of months to get that done.

Would your administration seek to block those permits or occupancy requirements?

Guest: We don't have any grounds to block anything.

It is unlawful.

The reality is, they have to go through a permitting process.

If they don't go through that, the building cannot be opened.

Briana: To you or anyone in the administration get any types of heads up that this deal is coming?

Guest: They sent me a letter that I received the day the press came out that they signed a contract, I got a letter that morning from GEO group.

Briana: So a couple of hours of notice.

Did you feel at all like this decision was retaliatory in nature, of course, you are all over the national headlines after the raid at the seafood market in your CD on workers they, are.

Guest: I don't think it was retaliatory.

They were trying to do it for some time and we were opposing it for some time.

BRIANA: is there any legal recourse where the state could step in on your behalf because, as you said, is not welcome in your city.

Guest: Well, I mean, there are things you have to do.

If you have to have two community meetings, that is contractual.

And planning board meetings.

And the community has to opine on that figure to the planning board has to approve or disapprove on the change of use.

What the community says impact the decision of the planning board.

I don't have any control, nor does the state have any control over the planning board.

It is an independent board selected by myself and folks from the community.

They sit on the board to protect the community in ways that they think it should be protected.

They have to go before the planning Board to get a change of use.

Briana: If folks are detained from New Jersey and instead of being flown elsewhere in the country, Texas, what have you, is there any benefit to these folks who are detained being able to stay a little closer to home?

Guest: Well, we would say that if we thought they were following peoples cause additional of the United States, opposing people democratic rates of due process.

We don't think that's is happening which is why we don't want to be part and parcel of what is going on.

We don't want them to raid a fish market and violate people's First Amendment right and have them in these places.

Under that thin veil of these people are criminals.

We don't want to participate in that.

We don't want to be involved in that in any way.

Obviously, if folks have criminal records, if they have been convicted of a crime, whether they are documented or not, we as a nation of laws, if you commit a crime, you get arrested and the judge decides what happens to you and a jury.

Obviously, we support that.

If somebody is convicted of a crime through a jury and a judge, then they should have a place that's close to them.

Briana: On that note, are you hearing anything at all about future I.C.E.

operations in your city?

Guest: They communicate with our law enforcement now, which is good.

At least to tell us where they are going and that folks aren't getting their establishments raided, and houses, unlawfully.

People being stopped without cause on the street simply because of how they look, the color of their skin, the accent they may have or the neighborhood they may be in.

Briana: Mayor Baraka, thanks so much for joining us.

Guest: No problem.

Thank you.

Briana: Meanwhile, I.C.E.

continues to carry out operations elsewhere in the states, including in Haddon Township where two restaurant owners in the U.S. legally, were detained at their business, leaving the community shaken.

Now those neighbors are banding together with the family to raise money and support the mother and father who were targeted.

Ted Goldberg heard from their son about that support, and of what is next for his parents.

>> This is all a test from God.

At the end of the day.

We will be more blessed after this.

Reporter: Mohamed says Tuesday was no ordinary workday at his family's restaurant in Haddon Township.

>> When I stepped through, there was a U.S. marshal, I.C.E.

agent standing at the front door.

I still took the catering order as well.

My mom told me to finish the catering order first as she was being taken out in cuffs.

Reporter: his parents were detained by I.C.E.

agents.

While his father was released with an ankle monitor, his mother is still in their custody.

The family says her bond hearing is March 18.

And until then sick she's being held at the Elizabeth Detention Center.

>> This is something we have been dealing with our entire life.

If anything now the decision we have been waiting for, is actually being decided on.

Reporter: According to Mohammed, the I.C.E.

agents didn't have an arrest warrant.

His parents came here from Turkey in 2008 on an R1 visa , given to a non-immigrant religious workers.

After opening this restaurant, they applied for a green card and were denied.

They opened a case with US citizenship and Immigration Services and nine years later, that case is still open.

>> The idea that a family can legally come to the United States, run a business, and give back to their local community, that is the American dream.

And we must create an immigration system that stays true to our American values.

>> They are old and is willing to step up when we reach out to businesses for different things whether it be Toys for Tots, community food drives, and they are always on the first to step up and contribute.

Reporter: Mayor Randy Teague says he had no idea I.C.E.

agents were in his township before the raid happened.

He has heard arguments that more I.C.E.

involvement makes the Tom Seaver, but says that doesn't apply here.

>> We consider this situation somewhat different than the other ones we hear on TV, where there are criminals and rapists and so forth coming into our country.

They came in here legally and they're trying to stay here legally.

>> President Trump is telling all of his I.C.E.

folks, we haven't done enough yet.

Keep doing more.

Reporter: The Camden County Commissioner was one of several leaders to stand by the family Thursday, roundly criticizing Tuesday's raid.

>> all these businesses are supported by immigrants.

And, frankly, almost all of them have their reasons for our here under the proper law.

But I know that all of them are working hard for these businesses and trying to make their American dream.

Reporter: the ACLU is also behind the family, arguing it shouldn't take a decade to decide someone's citizenship status.

>> And that is an indication of a system that isn't working.

Reporter: the case has sparked a larger conversation about immigration in general.

Like whether or not overstaying your visa should warrant being detained by I.C.E.

>> it's important for all of us to think about what the long-term impact of policies that arrest people, that separate families, the support them, that remove our neighbors from our communities, what about in fact really is.

Reporter: A spokesperson for I.C.E.

so they don't comment on private investigations, but told us, I.C.E.

officers make decisions on a case-by-case basis to focus on the greatest threats development security.

The arrests have forced Jersey kebab to close, but folks have responded by putting hearts outside the restaurant, and raising about $275,000 for the family.

>> We truly appreciate everybody's love for everything that they've been doing for us on social media and in your life.

>> Heartbroken, but hearts full of love at the same time.

We just wish it didn't come at the expense of my mother being locked up.

Reporter: In Haddon Township, Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: The pressure is on in Congress, as lawmakers wrestle with proposed steep cuts passed in House spending bill this week, and whether they result in a massive blow to Medicaid.

The GOP budget resolution calls for the Energy and Commerce committee, which oversees Medicaid, to find $880 billion in savings over the next decade.

The math shows there's nearly no way to do it without cutting the program, that some 2 million New Jersey residents rely on.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan takes a look at who and what those cuts would impact.

>> we are here today to raise the alarm and raise our voices.

Reporter: advocates at a lower branch news conference assigned Democrat Frank full-on, opposing potential cuts on federal funding, after House Republicans passed a budget that could chop Medicaid spending by 800 $80 billion, to help pay for extending the president's 4.52 long dollar tax cuts.

An Alzheimer's Association spokeswoman described raising cases and health care costs.

>> We are in need of these services for our community members.

We need the health care and the support.

Reporter: Visiting nurses fear cutbacks to their mission, keeping folks out of hospital.

>> Medicaid makes it possible to deliver health care directly to patients in their homes, helping them manage their chronic conditions, avoid conditions and maintain independence.

>> It is scary because people just assume that these things will happen.

But they only happen because the federal government is paying for them.

Reporter: Frank Pallone and every other house Democrat voted against the budget bill.

New Jersey Medicaid covers 1.8 low and would income adults and kids.

Nursing homes, seniors as well as disabled and hospital support.

The feds pay more than half the $24 billion bill, and New Jersey officials, who ran the numbers on possible Republican cost-cutting scenarios, predicted congressional cars code blow a five minute on a hole in the state budget.

That alarmed Trenton lawmakers.

>> we are all in favor of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.

But if you think you can eliminate this funding and not touch a single life in New Jersey -- Reporter: Assembly Democrats yesterday passed a measure urging U.S. senators to reject the house budget bill.

>>.

>> You need to understand that the ripple effect to our largest employer in our state's health care and health care providers.

That is our largest employer.

The impact of these cuts are dramatic.

Reporter: The devil is in the cost-cutting details.

And the President this week reputed a campaign promise not to cut Medicaid benefits.

>> We are not going to touch it.

NASA we are going to look for fraud, I'm sure you are OK with that, like people that shouldn't be on it, illegal aliens and others, criminals in many cases.

>> The Medicaid program itself is the leanest program in the federal government.

When I say leading, it's the most efficient.

Everybody who has analyzed it says it has the least amount of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Reporter: House Republicans like New Jersey's Chris Smith called a budget a, quote, work in progress, but it has created a rift between hardliners who want even deeper spending cuts and others concerned about backlash from constituents.

Almost 21% of second district Republican Jeff Van Drew I.C.E.

posted month receive Medicaid.

He noted no actual changes to Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid, can happen through a budget resolution alone.

Any cuts would require separate legislation, which I would vehemently oppose, he said.

Frank Pallone, ranking member of the committee that oversees Medicaid, says states facing cutbacks could reduce optional benefits like dental and vision care, or restrict Medicaid eligibility or cut support services.

>> when I see that a patient has Medicaid, I breathe sigh of relief because I know that helping them is going to make it just that much easier.

No other insurance program does more to provide coverage.

Reporter: New Jersey's human services Commissioner warns restrictions in federal funding, whether through cuts or eligibility restrictions, could result in millions of dollars in lost support, jeopardizing access to care, forcing difficult choices in provider payments, and straining our health care infrastructure.

In Washington it the now the Senate Republicans' turn to wrestle with the house budget.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Finally, there is a great deal of uncertainty over the next steps for Ukraine, after an unprecedented shouting match broke out today in the Oval Office between President Trump, Vice President J.D.

Vance, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukrainians displaced by the war have found refuge in New Jersey, including one woman who fled from bombs that nearly took her life, then received life-saving treatment at a dirt is hospital for her Parkinson's disease to start her life over.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis has her story.

>> I couldn't do anything.

I couldn't drink a cup of tea.

I couldn't write.

I couldn't type.

I couldn't open a laptop and open any website.

I couldn't do anything.

Anything.

Reporter: Tatiana was a nurse in Ukraine when, she says, the tremors started.

She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and overtime, she developed debilitating tremors that limited her ability to do much.

>> Daily tasks I couldn't get up from the bed.

I couldn't eat anything with a spoon.

For a long time.

Reporter: when the war in Ukraine it reached their neighborhood, she and her daughter and grandson led to America for safety.

It was here she learned she was eligible for a procedure called deep brain stimulation, or dbs.

>> It's an operation that allows us to put wires in the brain and reprogram the circuit in the brain that is not functioning correctly, which requires wires attached to extension cables which are then attached to a generator that's underneath the skin, usually in the test.

Reporter: Throop brain mapping, the surgery team here at the Jersey Shore University Medical Center determines where to place the context of using a lead to navigate through brain matter to find the areas in the brain that will target the right circuits.

>> In the brain there's.

>> 4 tiny contacts.

I tell patients that the lead that's in their head is about the size of an Angel hair spaghetti.

So it's very tiny.

Reporter: Once the location is determined, the team has defend the right frequency of the electrical current.

>> So for patients with a trimmer, I have to match of trimmer so they will have a higher frequency, as opposed to patients who may be had slowness and rigidity, I don't need as quick a frequency.

Reporter: Is that frequency happening throughout the day, or when there is a tremor?

>> Constant.

It never stops.

The beauty of the DBS, and where we can decrease their medication significantly, is because the DBS is always working.

When patients don't have this device, they take their pills, it goes into their stomachs, the symptoms relax.

But now you have this device always stimulating the cells.

>> Before the surgery I had to take a pill, wait a certain amount of time, an hour and a half, then I was realizing I have 20 minutes left.

So I was using this in two minutes to change.

Reporter: The procedure is that new, but the physicians hearsay people who have Parkinson's don't know about it, and those who do well,'s some are afraid to do it because it is after all, brain surgery.

>> I said Mom, this is your help.

Tell me how do you feel.

Do you feel that you want to do it?

Do you want to risk?

And she was saying, look how I am feeling.

What is the purpose of having life like this?

>> It's really minimally invasive.

There are a terrible thing that can happen to your brain, and this isn't one of them.

This is something every Parkinson's patient should be evaluated for because it's such a quality of life improvement for them.

>> It's magical, actually, for people having whatever disease.

.

You can turn this device on and instantly it's like the disease never happened.

Reporter: It's been four months since Tatiana had life it changing surgery.

She is able to adjust the frequency on her device whenever the tremors increased through an app on their phone that the medical team also has access to.

Today she has a whole new lease on life.

>> Every day I was finding something like I forgot how to do things, and every day was a surprise, oh, I can do this!

I can do this!

>> Now it's difficult to believe that she ever had it.

You just forget how bad she felt.

Reporter: But today, she is feeling better than ever and is even ready to enroll in some classes to learn English.

Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: That will do it for us tonight, but before you go, make sure you check out "Reporters Roundtable," with David Cruise.

He talks to his guest about key takeaways from Governor Murphy's proposed state budget, plus the panel of local journalists talk about this week's political headlines.

Watch Saturday at 6:00 p.m. on NJPBS Then on ChatBox," David continued the budget conversation with Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, looking at the challenges lawmakers now faced with budget negotiations given the uncertainty of the federal level.

If you can catch it Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. on NJPBS.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For the entire team here at "NJ Spotlight News," thanks for being with us.

Have a great weekend.

We will see you back here Monday.

Announcer: New Jersey Education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

And, RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

And, Orsted, committed to delivering clean, reliable American-made energy.

♪ >> Public service is what we do at the PSEG foundation.

Through volunteer hours, partnerships, and our other contributions.

We are committed to empowering communities.

We work hand-in-hand with you, our neighbors, to educate young people, support research, environmental sustainability and equitable opportunities, provide training and other services all over New Jersey and Long Island.

Uplifting communities -- that's what drives us.

The PSEG foundation.

♪