[Music] Money is finally flowing to the Gateway Tunnel again.

A sign of things to come or a temporary reprieve from an ongoing battle over the project's future?

Let's talk about it.

Hi everyone, I'm Joanna Gagis.

This is Reporters Roundtable.

We've got a panel of journalists with us to help break down all that's happened in the last week of New Jersey news.

Let's see who's with us today.

We have Aliya Schneider, politics reporter at The Inquirer, Jelani Gibson, politics reporter for NJ.com, and Max Pizzaro, co-founder and editor-in-chief for Insider NJ.

So, the Sherrill administration sued the federal government and won.

This week, $205 million flowed back to the Gateway Tunnel project that's been stalled with workers laid off for about two weeks now.

But even with the immediate relief funds being released, President Trump is critical of the project and vague about its future.

Aliya, do you think this win in court is a signal of a broader success for the project or just a win for the moment?

I do think it's a win for the success of the project.

Of course, the legal fight is ongoing and we don't know for sure, but a federal judge said that the funding had to keep flowing and then the appeals judge agreed with the first judge.

So I think we have two judges saying that the funding should keep flowing for this project.

So even though funding for the whole project and it's not a final decision, it's definitely a good sign as the politicking and the legal fight continues over this massive infrastructure project.

Yeah, and we do know that that appeals process is going to keep playing out.

Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary, is planning to file that appeal.

But I did speak to Tom Prendergast, who's the head of the Gateway Development Commission this week, who said they do expect workers to be back on the job next week.

They don't think it added too much to the costs.

But shifting gears, Jelani, it's hard to gauge what's been the bigger headline over the last several weeks.

Is it the Gateway Tunnel funding or is it ICE?

But yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee moved forward a package of three bills that have been really controversial.

that we know Governor Murphy pocket vetoed in his last days in office.

They have been modified.

Jelani, what can you tell us about those modifications and what bills actually moved yesterday?

Yes, so I mean a package of bills moved yesterday.

One that would talk about how law enforcement has to identify themselves and not wear masks when interacting with the public.

You have one that deals with data, and then you have one that codifies the Immigrant Trust Act.

They all passed.

And what became controversial is that the one that codifies the Immigrant Trust Act, the Immigrant Trust Act was always criticized by advocates for not protecting people with final deportation orders and people in DACA and stuff like that.

And it's called a final deportation order.

It's called a final removal order, but there are still actually legal ways that you can appeal that order.

And so what the advocates have been saying is that not extending that protection to those people actually gets rid of their appeal options.

And so that seemed to be a large controversy, and it'll probably continue to be one going forward.

We do know that Assemblyman Paul Kanitra is planning to hold a rally on Monday in opposition to these bills, although it does seem that they've moved really quickly through this legislature.

Max, I want to get your take, because we saw these bills move pretty slowly through the legislature during the Murphy administration, and then ended, as I said, with the pocket veto.

This legislature, which is much more democratic and more progressive than the previous one, has moved them more quickly.

Where do you see these ending up with Governor Sherrill?

Well, Joanna, I do think that there are many devils in the details of these bills.

And the masks bill, in particular, troubles law enforcement.

And I think the Sherrill administration wants to avoid putting local county and state law enforcement in a collision with federal law enforcement or with ICE.

And so the bills that the aforementioned bill on masks specifically avoids that by giving discretion to the attorney general to really dictate how this is delivered in the field.

And so there's no punishment for wearing a mask by law enforcement.

general reserves the discretion to be able to take action.

What action is that though, Max?

Because we know that states are very limited in how they can oversee federal operations.

At the very least, it sends a signal to the federal government in a year when there are federal elections.

Yeah, we've seen the federal government and representatives for DHS speak out against even the executive order that the governor signed last week that would bar any ICE operations or staging on state property.

I think they called it legally illiterate was the term I believe they used.

But there's another package of bills, Jelani, I'm going to go to you on this one.

Assemblyman newly elected Assemblyman Ravi Bala, former mayor of Hoboken, where there were people who were detained just a couple weeks ago, he introduced a package of three bills that are controversial in themselves.

Jelani, can you add any color into what these bills would do?

I know the first one would tax private detention profiteers.

Yeah, so I mean, you have a couple of things going on here.

One, one would basically, you know, tax the private detention places basically make their existence a lot more financially painful.

And the other largely controversial one is one that would basically ban people that have served in ICE from roughly September to the end of the Trump administration.

It would literally ban them from public employment in New Jersey.

And September is when a lot of the ICE agents were deployed to Democratic-controlled cities such as Chicago.

So it looks like they're making that period start and coincide with the crackdown and end with the Trump administration.

Basically anyone who signed up to come on board under this type of new kind of, I guess, rethought version of ICE is what we heard from the Assemblyman earlier this week.

I did speak to him.

I asked him if he thought that opened the state up to potential lawsuits.

He said, we don't see ICE officers as a protected class.

Thoughts there, Jelani?

Well, yeah, I mean, it's this this has been a lot of the far left calculus within the Democratic Party, which is essentially to play just as much hardball with the Trump administration as they're playing with with the Democrats.

And a lot of these people ran a lot of these candidates who are who are now in positions of power.

They literally ran or getting into legislative bare knuckle brawls with the Trump administration.

And so they seem to be staying true to what they claim they're going to be elected on.

It's not just Democrats who are taking this issue on in Roxbury.

We see a Republican controlled town council that passed an ordinance to block an ICE facility from coming into their township.

Leah, there was a whole lot of confusion.

It's like, who's on first when it comes to whether or not ICE purchased a facility, did not, what's happening in Roxbury?

- Yeah, so there were initially rumors of an ICE facility coming to Roxbury after a Washington Post report came out that mentioned different places where there might be ICE facilities going.

So there were already protests and pushback from Republican officials.

So Democrats and Republicans alike were unhappy about this, perhaps for different reasons.

And then a Gothamist came out with a report that had a DHS spokesperson saying, "Yes, we purchased a property to make into a facility in this town."

But then they kind of followed up reporting with DHS saying, "No, actually, that's not accurate.

You know, that person wasn't really approved to say that."

So there's just been... It went from rumors to thinking something was confirmed to it not being confirmed.

So there's just this ongoing confusion about whether there's going to be an ICE facility there.

And this is happening in other places around the country.

There are similar incidents in New York and Tennessee.

And I think this is just going to keep happening as ICE looks to expand their facilities and they continue to receive pushback.

What we do know about that Roxbury situation is that an ICE representative did go and scout a warehouse, although the warehouse owner has said no deal has been made, no offer has been made.

but when we reached out to ICE, they responded to us and said, "this will not be a warehouse," which is one of the major concerns that we've heard from Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, who does represent the township of Roxbury as its legal counsel.

he said, "look, these are not facilities that are appropriate for detainees," and ICE is saying, "it will not be a warehouse," and yet we know they were scouting warehouses.

just adds to the confusion, no, Aliya?

- Yeah, I mean, when I was looking at that quote in the coverage saying it won't be a warehouse, I was a little unsure what exactly that meant.

Are they saying they're not going to buy a warehouse?

Are they saying they're gonna take a warehouse and make it into something else?

I think that kind of is up to interpretation a little bit, so I wasn't completely sure what to make of that.

- Yeah.

Max, there was a really big Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week.

That is, it was yesterday.

That is where those three immigration bills did move forward.

But also there was a confirmation hearing in that process as well.

Three of Governor Sherrill's nominees for cabinet picks.

What can you tell us about who's up and what happened there?

- I'd be happy to, Joanna.

I would only say that with all the confusion over that warehouse, I can confirm that the town of Roxbury will not be renamed Trump in exchange for not citing the warehouse in the town.

I did get that information.

Have you heard, Max, that there was an offer made or a request made?

No, I didn't, Joanna.

I'm sorry.

I just knew that there was a lot of confusion and it was difficult to follow.

But by the end of it, yes, it looks like we don't exactly know where it is.

Someone said that already.

But let's stay on that, Max, just really quickly, because we know that the Republican-led town council voted against this, right?

They do not want it in their town.

Now, whether this is a not-in-my-backyard type of situation, whether there are real concerns about, you know, people being housed in warehouses, do they have any control?

Do they have any ability to stop this from moving forward?

Well, the representative of the district where Roxbury is located has not really come out with a strong and declarative opposition.

That would be Tom Kane Jr.

Correct, and he's up for re-election this year in probably the most dedicated battleground in New Jersey.

And so I'm not sure that they have any real clout, but in fact, the voters have a significant amount of clout, and they will exercise that in November.

Yeah, Congressman Cain has been quiet on this and many other issues.

We've invited him many, many times to come on the show and talk.

But but you raised some really interesting points there and with so much pressure against it.

I wonder if that moves the needle at all.

But let's get back to Governor Sherrill's Cabinet picks.

What do we have there?

I want to answer your question.

Pardon me.

And yes, there were some interesting exchanges yesterday.

And among them, I found interesting Senator Smith's grilling of Stephen Chah, who is the Sherrill administration's selection for the Department of Health.

And in this exchange, Senator Smith wanted a greater show of aggression by the nominee when asked about what he would do in the face of the anti-vax priorities of the federal Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr.

And this is Department of Human Services, right in New Jersey.

Yes, yes, Health and Human Services.

So Stephen Shah was very evasive, much to the chagrin of Senator Smith.

Moreover, the Department of Education Commissioner was up for examination before the Senate.

And she was somewhat evasive on the question of artificial intelligence.

Senator Rene Burgess asked her what we can do in order to protect privacy and also to protect humanity.

And the nominee was somewhat vague on the question.

- And that is Lily Lau, right?

And she is from Texas.

She hails from Texas.

She was the former, she was the Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Association, one of a few of Governor Sherrill's out-of-state picks to lead her cabinet.

But go ahead.

That's right, Joanna.

And in fact, Senator Testa brought up the residency issue with both Cha and Lau, and just wanted to make sure that they are intending to move into the state, which they hope to serve.

We would hope so.

What does Lau bring to the table with her experience in Texas?

And how do you think it does or does not serve the very specific needs here in New Jersey?

Well, she brings a tremendous amount of expertise.

She's obviously a very well-educated person and conscientious individual.

As to the details, we're going to have to wait because the Democratic controlled committee did not really dive into those.

Yeah.

And then finally, Vincent Salamino III.

Local guy and seems very well respected and liked.

And certainly this is going to be a priority of Cheryl who is herself a veteran.

Yeah.

Aliya, there's a whole lot happening in District 12.

I should say there are races shaping up across the state.

We've got seven.

We've got now a primary in District 8 with Musab Ali taking a shot at sitting Congressman Rob Menendez.

But you have been focused on District 12 where, I don't know how many people are in the race at this point.

It's hard to keep track, but where are we?

And I wanna focus on Sue Altman, who has come out as likely one of the forerunners.

- Yeah, I think it's about 15 candidates now, 'cause it was at 17, but there were some dropouts.

So somewhere around 15 candidates are looking to replace Bonnie Watson Coleman in District 12.

She was the first Black woman to serve in New Jersey's congressional delegation.

She's a progressive member of the Congressional Caucus and she is retiring and it's a wide open race.

There's a lot of people running, including local elected officials.

There's first-time candidates.

And Sue Altman is one of the latest candidates to throw her hat into the ring.

And Sue Altman has quite a history in progressive politics in New Jersey.

She really made a mark in Camden in terms of the Working Families Party.

She was very vocal in opposing George Norcross, a power broker in South Jersey.

She got into fights with Chris Christie very publicly.

She was part of earlier efforts to abolish the county line.

And she most recently served as the state director for Senator Andy Kim for about a year before stepping down to launch her campaign for this race.

Now, Sue Altman just ran for Congress a couple of years ago in New Jersey 7, when Democrats were attempting to get the district back from Congressman Keene, and she did not win that race.

And she's actually, she is moving to get a little closer to this new district, but in a town that is part of both districts.

So she's still technically going to be outside of the district, so she will probably face some attacks on that.

uh... but she argues you know that she's been very familiar with the whole state with this district uh... through her work as a progressive activist i would say a major difference in this race uh... she is right now going up against a lot of other candidates of color who are from that region and of course we know as you said bonnie watson congresswoman bonnie watson coleman was the first Black congressional representative in new jersey do you think that that makes this path for her much harder?

I definitely think it's a factor I mean you know she was seen as this progressive candidate in other situations but now there's candidates who are more progressive than her and Bonnie Watson Coleman is left a progressive legacy and so one candidate I've seen, he served on the transition team for Zohra Mamdani.

He's worked for Bernie Sanders.

He's an all around progressive candidate.

And he's a person of color and Sue Altman.

You know, she's a white woman and people may not care.

People may look at you know, her work that she's done, but people might care.

And I think that's something that I don't know personally at this point, but it definitely is all part of the dynamic and part of who people want to replace this longtime member of Congress in this very reliably blue district.

Yeah, and she's got a much shorter runway this time as well because she had a longer time to plan and prepare and this is going to be a much faster election season.

I'm sorry to cut you off there, but we only have a little bit of time left.

Jelani, I do want to ask you, you've been looking at the governor's budget priorities.

We're really entering budget season.

The address is expected on March 10th.

What are going to be the kind of key challenges that Governor Sherrill faces as she lays out her budget priorities?

Well, you're going to encounter a couple of pain points here.

So one is obviously going to be school funding.

The legislature and the Higher Education Committee has already talked about consolidation multiple times.

People are also going to have to figure out what to do with pending federal cuts that come from COVID and also the federal cuts that they just might have to deal with when it comes to the Trump administration and their you know retaliatory stance on immigration.

And so you'll have school funding, you'll have federal funding, and you'll also have a Stay NJ and whether or not that tax program is going to be funded at the level it needs to be funded to stay viable.

Yeah, that property tax rebate program that was really led by by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin took a while to get off the ground.

But now the state has funded it.

We just have a little bit of time left in the last minute.

Jelani, we did lose Reverend Jesse Jackson this week.

He's been a controversial figure throughout his life and career.

But what impact would you say he's had here in New Jersey and across the nation?

Yeah, I mean, in New Jersey, he's always had a certain amount of influence with the Black Caucus and a lot of other civil rights leaders.

And throughout the nation, that has happened as well.

Almost every civil rights figure leaves a certain amount of controversy, so to speak.

But the real question as the older generation of civil rights leaders, you know, die is who is now going to take up that mantle?

And I think that you also see a lot of that struggle in today's current political races and activist spaces.

Jelani, Aliya, Max, thank you all so much for your insights and for being with us today.

You can follow me on Instagram @joannagagisnj and go ahead and scan that QR code on your screen to see more episodes of Roundtable.

For all the crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, I'm Joanna Gagis.

Thanks for being with us and have a great weekend.

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