Gov. Murphy signs immigrant rights bills amid controversy surrounding migrant buses

After Gov. Phil Murphy signed a package of bills Friday aimed at improving immigrants’ rights, immigrant advocates praised Murphy for standing up for vulnerable communities amid the controversy surrounding busloads of migrants that have passed through New Jersey.

“We’re one of the most diverse states in the country, and these bills show that our immigrant populations, across the board, are an integral part of this state. It’s a message we hope to see our lawmakers building on,” said Alejandra Sorto, campaign strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Murphy, a Democrat, signed a trio of bills Friday that extend protections for domestic workers in New Jersey, mandate state agencies to translate documents into multiple languages other than English, and change how Asian residents can identify in demographic data collection. He referred to the three new laws as the “people’s agenda.”

Former Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, a Democrat, said Murphy’s efforts are important for immigrant communities at a time of political duress.

“We need to keep fulfilling the promise of a state that hosts the State of Liberty, and has such a long history of welcoming immigrants,” Jaffer said.

Murphy signed the bills during a Statehouse ceremony in front of a crowd of about 70 people from different activist groups, including Wind of the Spirit, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, New Labor, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and AAPI Montclair. They all were involved in the years-long fights to get the bills passed.

The crowd’s loudest ovation was for the new law known as the “Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights,” which requires employers to enter into written contracts with domestic workers, sets requirements for breaks, mandates employers pay the state minimum wage, and establishes penalties for violating the law, including penalties for retaliation.

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New Jersey — home to more than 50,000 domestic workers, many of them Black, Latino, or Asian-American/Pacific Islander women — is now the 11th state with legislation protecting the rights of domestic workers. For too long, these workers have been “treated as second-class citizens,” Murphy said Friday.

The second of the three bills signed into law Friday requires state agencies and departments to translate some state documents into the seven most common non-English languages spoken in the state. Supporters say the translated documents are crucial to New Jersey residents who may not speak English fluently but still need to access state services.

The original version of the bill called for 15 languages, but it was amended to seven before the Legislature approved it. Murphy said he wants to “keep the door open to evolving that list even further.”

The third bill requires state agencies to update demographic data collection to include more details on the state’s Asian diaspora communities. People whose heritage can be traced to about 50 countries can be classified as Asian, but breaking that demographic into smaller, more specific categories — to include Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian and Indian residents — helps uncover trends and inequities in those groups, supporters of the bill say.

Immigrant advocates’ praise of Murphy on Friday comes as Murphy and other public officials in New Jersey have attempted to deal with busloads of migrants that have been dropped off at transit stations in New Jersey on their way from Texas to New York City. Murphy has joined with local officials, Republican and Democrat, to say the state does not have the resources to take the migrants in.

Serges Demefack, coordinator at human rights group the American Friends Service Committee, in a phone interview criticized what he called Murphy’s ambivalence toward helping asylum seekers passing through New Jersey. Demefack supports all three bills signed Friday.

“This an opportunity for New Jersey, for Murphy, to say, ‘Look, this is who we are. We are a state of immigrants, and we are proud of who we are,'” he said. “Really, Murphy should be more outspoken on what he has achieved.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has said he’s sending tens of thousands of migrants from Texas border towns to places like New York City because President Biden has “ refused to secure the border.” Abbott says the migrants go willingly.

Murphy told WNYC Wednesday that the way migrants are being used “as pawns is completely unacceptable.”