Soon after she took office, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill issued an Executive Order (EO-12) requiring that ICE officers have a warrant to enter “nonpublic areas of State property.” On March 19 of this  year, however, NJ.com reported that New Jersey Transit “buses, trains and stations” remain open to ICE officers without the need for a warrant–on the grounds that buses, trains, and stations are public areas of State property, hence not covered by EO-12.

A movement has now arisen to demand that New Jersey Transit follow the lead of the Greyhound bus company in asserting that buses, trains, and light rail cars require either explicit consent for entry (which should uniformly be denied) or a judicial warrant. Reproduced below is the text of a letter by Rachael Schnurr, an activist with Resistencia en Acción, and a Ph.D. candidate in history at Princeton University. Though Rachael refers specifically to buses in her letter, it goes without saying that her argument applies to trains and light rail cars as well. Readers are urged to use Rachael’s letter as a template, and send letters to NJ Transit urging that it restrict ICE access to NJ Transit vehicles. Comments can be submitted via this link.

I am a New Jersey resident and taxpayer, and I am deeply concerned that New Jersey Transit is considering allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on buses without a judicial warrant. Our governor was clear that ICE needs a legitimate warrant to enter privately owned spaces. It is also clear that the US federal administration is eager to usurp state and local power, consolidating enforcement in a gang of well-funded thugs who answer to no one but the president. This is not how government works in the United States. We have a moral and ethical duty to curb this authoritarian overreach wherever we encounter it, and that means people in state-government roles need to have courage on the job.

Resistencia en Acción in Elizabeth, New Jersey, October 2025. Yes, I took the train there. 

Immigrants of all sorts are people. All people have rights, including the right to reasonable search and seizure, according to this nation’s Constitution. ICE should be able to produce a warrant signed by a judge if they want to enter a space where they need a ticket, which they won’t get because judges know that “illegal” immigration is a civil offense. It does not merit being held in a for-profit concentration camp warehouse where you family can’t find you, where they feed you rotten and not enough food, and where you have no access to medical care or a lawyer. Most people taken by ICE have no criminal record. They are people with families who have often lived here for decades, waiting for their asylum cases to be heard or their green cards to come through. Now they are vulnerable because they are a valuable asset to the for-profit prison and propaganda industry, My ancestors didn’t face such treatment when they came here in the 19th century, before “illegal” immigration existed. Did yours?

There’s barely enough room for commuters on NJ Transit, much less ICE 

New Jersey Transit has a duty to limit ICE access without a legitimate warrant in the spaces they control. If you lack courage in this moment, real human blood will be on your hands. This is not hyperbole, you can see for yourselves how many people are suffering and dying in ICE detention warehouses.

Do not waver on this. No ICE on NJ buses. 

Sincerely,

Rachel Schnurr
West Windsor Township