One of the sadder aspects of the case of Texas v. United States is the position New Jersey is officially taking on it. There is a hearing today in the case on whether President Barack Obama’s administrative relief programs on immigration can go forward.
On the side of states like Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi will be our neighbor to the south. Gov. Chris Christie’s administration signed the state on to a brief supporting the anti-immigrant side and arguing that giving the parents of United States citizens temporary permission to remain in the United States would “irreparably harm” New Jersey.
Nineteen percent of the people living in New Jersey are Latino. The state has a pretty good record on immigrant rights. We all know that the state’s inclusion in an anti-immigrant amicus brief to the 5th Circuit in New Orleans does not spring from any outcry in the Garden State against the people who pick the crops in that garden. The governor is not responding to the will of his constituents or to the calls of conscience.
