Statement

Budget Funds Legal Defense for Immigrants Facing Detention and Deportation

New funding for legal representation comes as ICE activity escalates across New Jersey

By

Published on Jun 30, 2026 in Tax and Budget

New Jersey’s legislative budget committees approved the state budget bill S2027/A5327, which included $20.2 million for the state’s Detention and Deportation Defense Initiative (DDDI). This program provides free legal counsel and representation to income-eligible New Jersey residents facing detention and/or deportation.

In response, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) releases the following statement:

Marleina Ubel, Senior Policy Analyst, NJPP:

“Funding the DDDI is the right call, and the Governor and Legislature deserve credit for it — as do the legal aid organizations and grassroots partners who do this work and who pushed to get it funded. The program is rooted in the belief that all people deserve access to due process, and right now that principle is under direct attack from the federal government. The increase proposed in New Jersey’s Fiscal Year 2027 State Budget is the largest single-year increase in the state’s history, and it may not be enough.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has shown up at New Jersey courthouses, transit stations, and workplaces this year, detaining people on their way to work and in front of their own families. In recent years, courthouse arrests in Passaic and Middlesex County prompted New Jersey’s Chief Justice to ask the federal government to stop. It has not. Many of these detentions tear families apart and leave children without a parent.

“Funding the DDDI is one action among many that the state will have to take to protect all New Jerseyans and defend the rights of every person living here.”

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Author

  • Marleina Ubel, State Policy Fellow, has been a dedicated advocate for underrepresented groups throughout her academic career. She began her undergraduate work at Valencia College and earned a transfer scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a B.A. in Philosophy. As a PIKSI fellow, she spent a summer at MIT challenging demographic disparities in institutions of higher learning. She is currently pursuing her M.S.W. in Management and Policy at Rutgers University. Her most recent research has focused on the negative impacts of public policy on low-income fathers. Marleina lives in Lambertville with her husband and daughter.
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