A view of Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst.File photo
President Donald Trump’s administration is making plans to use military sites across the U.S. — potentially including one in New Jersey — to detain undocumented immigrants as the White House aims to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations, according to a new report.
Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst in Burlington and Ocean counties is among several bases the administration is considering as detention centers for people facing deportation, the New York Times reported Friday.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was not aware of the plans until reading the report, spokeswoman Natalie Hamilton told NJ Advance Media.
Murphy’s office declined further comment.
Trump, now a month into his new tenure in the White House, has promised to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in America. There has been an increase in ICE raids since the Republican took office, including one at a fish market in Newark last month.
Using military facilities to detain immigrants would mark an acceleration of Trump’s goals.
His administration is developing a deportation hub at Fort Bliss in Texas, according to the Times report, which cited unnamed officials familiar with the plans.
The New Jersey base could be a satellite facility. The administration is considering similar sites in Niagra Falls in upstate New York, California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, the report said.
The White House deferred comment to the U.S. Defense and Homeland Security departments, which did not respond, according to the Times.
The White House did not immediately return a message from NJ Advance Media on Friday night asking for comment specifically about Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst.
New Jersey is home to one of the country’s largest immigrant populations at 2.2 million, according to the Migration Policy Institute. About 475,000 of them entered the U.S. illegally, according to Pew Research Center estimates.
The state has an oft-debated policy called the Immigrant Trust Directive, which prohibits police officers, prosecutors, and corrections officers from participating in ICE’s civil immigration enforcement operations.
In the wake of Trump’s re-election, advocates have been pushing state leaders to make it law.
Murphy, a Democrat who once said he was open to making New Jersey a “sanctuary state” for undocumented immigrants, has said the directive has been “highly effective” but stopped short of saying he would codify the protections into law.
The governor said in an interview with NJ Advance Media last month that the state’s reaction to Trump’s immigration plans will depend on the situation. Murphy said he likely would not protest deporting immigrants who have lost asylum status or have committed “a serious crime.”
“That’s very different from blunt-instrument mass deportation,” Murphy said. “Including very innocent individuals who escaped seeking asylum because they were being persecuted or physically threatened, or even worse yet, American citizens — that’s a problem.”
A Rutgers-Eagleton poll last fall found most New Jersey residents want tougher border security and a small majority favor mass deportation.
Despite hailing from opposing parties, Murphy and Trump have had a cordial relationship of late. The governor said last month he will “never back away from partnering with the Trump administration where our priorities align” but will also “never back down from defending our New Jersey values if and when they are tested.”
Murphy also ignited a firestorm last month when he appeared to say during a public event that he was housing an undocumented immigrant above a garage at his home and daring federal officials to “try to get her.”
The governor later insisted he was not harboring an undocumented immigrant and that is not what he was implying. Instead, Murphy said, he was trying to say ”people who have complete clean status, including American citizens, are wigged out right now.”
Stories by Brent Johnson
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X at @johnsb01.