Roadblock for new ICE jail

Good morning!

The Sherrill administration and Republican officials in Roxbury chalked up a win against the Trump administration Tuesday over the feds’ plans for a migrant jail in that Morris County town.

Just before a court date in the case, the feds agreed to hold off on opening the jail until it has done a full environmental assessment. When that’s done, the two sides must confer before proceeding.

It doesn’t kill the jail plan entirely, but it adds a big roadblock. Sherrill and Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo cheered the news, saying the planned facility “will harm the community and won’t do anything to make us safer.”

David Broderick, a retired attorney who works with activist group No Ice North Jersey Alliance, said the new agreement was the “best we could have hoped for.”

“Our real hope is that they just decide it doesn’t make sense to continue down this path and just walk away. Either use it as a garage or sell it,” he said.

Read more from Sophie Nieto-Muñoz.

Cannabis: In Jersey City, there’s been a yearslong fight over whether the city could fire police officers for using cannabis off duty. The city’s former mayor, Steve Fulop, argued they could not, but state officials have largely ruled in the officers’ favor. Earlier this month, a state appellate court sided with two cops — but their lawyer, Michael Rubas, says the city refuses to return them to their old posts. He said he had been hoping for a change once Fulop was succeeded by the new mayor, James Solomon. “Nothing’s changed at all. It’s been worse,” Rubas said.

Beaver attack: Um, what

Health: A state Assembly panel advanced a bill aimed at codifying hospital regulations related to sepsis, a condition that experts say is hard to diagnose and kills roughly 2,000 adults here each year. Among the witnesses was Sherwin Tsai, who lost his son Clemson to sepsis within weeks of the boy’s birth in 2024.  “You have the power to save children’s lives. Please do the right thing in Clemson’s memory,” Tsai testified Monday.

Elections: A handful of towns still hold nonpartisan municipal elections in May, and those were yesterday. It was generally a good night for incumbents. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sailed to reelection, as did Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss. Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh won a closer race, besting his closest competitor by about 600 votes out of 19,000 cast. Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski was elected Bayonne’s first woman mayor. The big shocker of the night was in Belleville, where Councilman Frank Vélez defeated Mayor Michael Melham by 20 points, a veritable shellacking. Melham, who is unaffiliated but backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli for governor last year in a town that went 62% for Democrat Mikie Sherrill, launched a recent effort to convince Republicans in Belleville to cast ballots in the nonpartisan municipal race and help him defeat the “far left.”

Transpo: A Senate panel on Monday cleared a bill that would allow a driverless car pilot in New Jersey. Bill sponsor Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D) said this technology has advanced quite a bit since the Legislature last passed a law exploring driverless cars, so now is the time to move forward. “We’re talking about a transformative way to transport people and goods in the densest state in the country,” he said. Am anxious to see how a robot car handles this:

World Cup: Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday that NJ Transit train tickets to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup are now $98, down from the initial cost of $150. Sherrill said corporate sponsors have helped defray even more of the cost — and this time she named them: DoorDash, Audible, FanDuel, DraftKings, PSE&G, South Jersey Industries, and American Water. So PSE&G can afford to help pay for World Cup train tickets but can’t lower my electric bill, I see.