♪ ♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

A few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

Congressman Rob Menendez is one of several federal Democratic lawmakers looking for ways to fight President Trump's immigration policies.

He'll share how then Republican state Senator John Bramnick holds nothing back on his take of the state's budget challenges and more.

And some foster kids in the state are facing a housing crisis taking their situation from bad to worse.

We'll take a look.

But first a few of our top headlines.

Three children were hospitalized after a major car crash in Newark yesterday morning.

The crash was the result of ICE agents pursuing a van that they tried to pull over before the driver tried to escape.

The van hit a car that was carrying three young teenage siblings who all had to be taken to university hospital with injuries.

Another car was also hit in the crash.

The driver of the van was also hospitalized with injuries.

That's according to the city's public safety director and Newark Mayor Raz Baraka who called out ICE for failing to follow state law which he says prohibits law enforcement from chasing vehicles unless the suspect poses an imminent threat.

In a statement, Baraka added, "ICE cannot come into our city and recklessly put innocent people in harm's way, and that this behavior is in keeping with a rabid, lawless pattern seen nationally.

Somebody could have been killed in Newark today."

DHS told us in a statement that this was a targeted operation of a man who attempted to evade arrest by ramming his van into federal law enforcement vehicles and that the man was later taken into ICE custody.

Newark police were on the scene, but Mayor Baraka said they were only responding to the accident and did not assist the federal agents.

New Jersey's at the edge of a fiscal cliff.

Governor Sherrill announced today the state is facing a $3 billion structural deficit and said if no changes are made, the current $7 billion surplus will be wiped out completely in just two years.

The governor called a press conference today to share the news as she prepares her first budget address, which she'll deliver on March 10th.

But her warning is clear.

Tough choices will be made.

Cheryl blamed a combination of factors that got us here.

The loss of pandemic era funding.

President Trump's tax and spending bill that'll put another 100 million dollar burden on the state and what she calls Trenton's historic spending problem including decades of underfunding programs like the pension system causing the current administration to have to make higher payments.

But Cheryl also promised not to raise taxes and has directed all of her departments to look for savings.

She said today's announcement is part of her push for transparency in the budget process which in the past has come under fire for including secret backroom deals with little oversight and that often ends with a bloated state budget.

I refuse to put off for tomorrow what we have to fix today.

Washington isn't coming to save us.

Trump is only making things worse.

We have to stand on our own two feet and make some tough choices.

Coming up we'll speak with Congressman Rob Menendez on his latest push for the state to divest from a technology company with ties to ICE.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents.

Democrats in Congress are in the minority, so they have little say over the Trump administration's immigration policies that they disagree with.

But they're looking for ways to exert influence where they can.

Congressman Rob Menendez has recently been calling for the New Jersey State Investment Council to divest from Palantir Technologies, which is a data analytics company that contracts with ICE and federal agencies.

He's with us now to talk about that and other issues of the day.

Congressman thanks so much for being with us.

You've called for divestment from Palantir Technologies.

Why.

Why is this the right move for New Jersey.

Because one is it's a misalignment between our investment decisions on behalf of retirees and the values of our state.

We've seen what Palantir has done contracting with ICE DHS giving them technology to do what you're seeing from Minneapolis to New Jersey terrorizing our communities, separating families, and we don't think that the state should continue to hold its investment in Palantir or any other company that's doing similar work with ICE and DHS given what we're seeing in our communities and the harm that they are causing.

We talk about Palantir I just want to explain what their contract actually says it's a 30 million dollar contract right for this life cycle operating system that provides near real time visibility into immigration life cycles what does that even mean so it basically helps ice and gives them sort of a modern way of doing immigration enforcement that takes all this different data which we no longer have siloed in the administration they've broken it loose so which is a separate problem but they now have a vast trove of data they can use to plug into the system which gives them a greater ability and likelihood that they are going to be able to find people who may be here on an undocumented basis.

Now you have to couple this with ICE's own data which shows that they're not detaining people who have criminal records right because on the campaign trail you heard Trump was going to go after violent criminal criminals.

When I go to Delaney Hall I meet with mothers who have U.S.

citizens children.

I meet with fathers who are small business owners with no criminal records.

So what they are doing is going after people who have perhaps civil immigration violations but who are not criminals.

So they are not taking criminals off our street.

They are using this to go after people who on average have been here 15 or more years.

That's something we heard quite a lot about during the State of the Union address.

We will get to that in a minute.

But I want to get your reaction to what happened in Newark yesterday.

There was this high-speed chase which ended in a crash.

Do you hold ICE agents responsible for that crash or the individual who was fleeing, who was driving that van recklessly, through the streets of Newark?

So look at what law enforcement would do here in the state of New Jersey, right?

They would not pursue someone, especially in a place like Newark, because there are dangers in doing that, right?

So it's a problem with ICE is it's not real law enforcement.

You have people who are not being trained properly.

You have people who are being trained for 47 days, who are going out into our communities, masked, heavily armed.

I do think it's ICE's responsibility.

They should be held accountable, not just on this one instance, which was terrible, right, but on so many things where they are causing harm and fear in all of our communities.

And so ICE needs to be held accountable.

They can't come into our communities and cause more harm to people who are bystanders, who are casualties, who are being harmed, and they're not even the target of the immigration enforcement.

Yeah, those are three quick three kids on their way to school.

That's right.

You early on when we saw some of these ice practices rolling out, we're calling for a reform of ice.

Are you at a point that you would like to see ice abolished?

What is your position there?

Yeah, we don't believe that this that ice can continue to exist and that it needs to be abolished.

I'll tell you why.

This is the way I describe it to people.

Imagine a year from now someone in Minneapolis or here in Newark, right, heard that ice was in the community.

You would have families who wouldn't leave their homes.

You would have children who would be afraid to leave school.

Ice has done an irreparable amount of damage, not just to the agency, but to DHS writ large.

And it's not something that can be reformed.

And so there are going to be ways that we can do immigration enforcement.

We did it before ice existed, and we can do it again.

But seeing this be turned into a paramilitary, killing Americans in broad daylight, this can no longer continue to exist.

And so we've called for ICE to be abolished, and we believe that's the right position to take, not just for us here in a heavily immigrant-based district, but for all Americans.

There's other ways that we can do immigration enforcement.

- Are there other ways that we can do immigration policy?

Is there any movement in Congress towards any kind of meaningful immigration reform?

Yeah, so clearly the Trump administration has taken advantage of a broken immigration system.

And that's something that I see every day in the work that we do through our district office or when I visit one of the two privately run detention centers.

There is a recognition, and Democrats have a variety of proposals, things that I'm a co-sponsor of, things that are not my preferred approach, because I don't think they go far enough and provide enough protections.

But Democrats have a whole suite of options that are available at any time.

Republicans in the administration need to come to the table and work with us so we can stop the harm that's going on throughout the country.

So people who are positively contributing to not just our economy but to our communities have a protected status here and for many have a pathway to citizenship.

We should be having that conversation.

Democrats are ready.

Republicans need to come to the table.

You have made many oversight visits to Delaney Hall in Newark.

What are your thoughts on ice purchasing a new facility in Roxbury a warehouse as we understand it.

Although it's not finalized and likely to be to end up in the courts.

What are your thoughts if they are able to finalize that purchase and turn it into a detention facility?

Yeah, I mean, we're completely against the Roxbury facility.

We've been against the Elizabeth Detention Center and privately run detention centers since we came to Congress, which predates the Trump administration.

So clearly, we do not believe that Roxbury should be open.

There's no need for a 1,500-person processing center here in the state.

The Delaney Hall is a 10-year, over-billion-dollar contract with the GEO Group.

And when you look at the numbers, again, it's ICE's own data, right, about who is being detained.

You have nonviolent individuals, non-criminals there, right?

And we're not even in through year two of a 10-year contract for Delaney Hall.

So what does that mean?

We are -- the Trump administration is trying to create a larger undocumented population.

How?

They're letting TPS lapse for Venezuelans, for Haitians.

They are undoing the parole program that other administrations have used.

And this is the other one.

They're also trying to undo birthright citizenship.

So there would be children in this country who are U.S.

citizens today who would have no country of origin.

If you increase the undocumented population, people who are non-criminals, right, then you have a 10-year runway at Delaney Hall.

Then you have Roxbury, a 1,500-person processing center.

That's what they're planning on doing.

This is a Stephen Miller plan to fundamentally change the fabric of America.

That's not who we are.

And anything that furthers that should be opposed, and we should all stop from having it -- work to stop from having it happen.

>> Very quickly, you are going to have a challenge from a far left candidate in the primary, Musab Ali.

I want to ask if you think these are issues that will impact the outcome of the midterm elections and how do you believe Democrats need to move forward to take back control of Congress?

>> I think there's two major things in a district like this, affordability and immigration that you see every single day.

I think for the vast majority of Americans, affordability is the number one issue.

Economic issues, kitchen table issues are front and center.

Even though the president painted a picture of the golden age of America during his State of the Union address?

So when my wife and I talk, she tells me I can't tell her how she feels, right?

And you can't tell the American people how they feel.

The American people feel like they're underwater.

They feel like the president is not doing things to improve their lives.

the cost for all Americans.

People don't feel better off a year plus into the Trump administration than they did before.

That's not what you're hearing from your constituents.

No, and I think, and you talk to people, the cost of living continues to rise.

And he said he was going to take on these challenges day one of his administration.

He has failed to do so.

Instead, they're cutting a trillion dollars for Medicaid.

Instead, they're giving tax breaks to the top 1%.

So they are not doing things that are going to help the majority of New Jerseyans.

And that ultimately is why you're seeing the president underwater in all polling.

All right, Congressman Robin Nundez, we have to leave it there, but thank you so much.

Great being with you.

With the state in a fiscal deficit and Trump administration policies at the forefront here in New Jersey, where do Republicans stand?

As part of our Under the Dome series, we have with us one member of the state GOP, Senator John Bramnick, who never holds back on sharing his opinions.

Senator, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with us today.

I've got to ask you, you know, Governor Sherrill and her newly confirmed treasurer, Aaron Binder, came forward today to say that we're facing this $3 billion deficit, $7 billion surplus could be gone after two years.

What do you say to that?

Here's the big duh.

Oh, look, we've been talking about that for a long time.

There's been all kinds of communications from prior administration Everything's rosy.

Look if you remember when Christie came in and even when Cody was here.

He said we're not bankrupt, but we're close to the end of the year.

I'm proud of the fact that she's talking about reality.

>> She says she's reached out to every legislator.

Has she reached out to you?

And if so, have you shared any recommendations on what needs to happen here to fix this and close this gap?

>> Well, not in the last couple days, but I've been in touch with the governor on a number of issues.

My recommendation is stop spending.

You know it was getting out of control.

Everybody knew it.

It's just that nobody wanted to talk about it until the election was over.

So my recommendation is hey it's going to hurt and it's going to be painful.

But you've got to do it.

We've seen a lot of Republican senators speaking out recently calling on a different funding model for schools talking about various districts in their district school districts that are struggling facing multi billion dollar shortfalls.

Curious when you say stop spending where would the cuts come from.

We know the state has a ballooned pension payment.

We know school funding is more critical than ever.

Where do those cuts come from.

Well you know I'm not looking at the entire budget but they came up with stay in New Jersey.

I love the concept.

Hundreds of millions of dollars.

But it's really a gimmick.

I mean why would we be against you know giving money back to taxpayers and homeowners.

But that's a big spend.

You know you really can't do that because you're spending money you don't have.

So there is a big spend that we all support because we don't want to be against giving back money to homeowners, but it was way too much money.

And we know how they dished out hundreds of millions of dollars.

We call it like Christmas items, Christmas gifts at the end of the fiscal year.

And that's been exposed.

Stop giving away all that money to all your partisan friends.

This stuff's not that complicated.

This has been built up over many, many years.

Before we get to ICE operations and masks on officers, which I know you have a strong opinion on, I just have to ask, you know, the governor coming out today says that this is part of her transparency effort.

Do you -- what do you make of her first month and a half as governor?

Do you have any assessment so far as to how she's handling things or maybe trying to change things in Trenton?

What I do see is we unanimously supported her nominees, including the attorney general, and her other nominees on the judiciary.

So, so far, she's putting up competent people.

>> I don't know.

But at this point, republicans Think we voted unanimously for Her nominees, which indicates She's moving in the right Direction generally.

But, you know, the tough part is Ahead.

>> Yeah, for sure.

Tough part is definitely ahead.

You are not afraid to buck your Own party.

You have spoken out and the only Lawmaker to vote for a bill that Would require masks to come off Law enforcement.

Why?

Well, first, what is this a party thing?

How about if they pulled you over at 2 in the morning and three people got out of a van with masks on?

What's this mask thing?

First of all, you understand that I voted to take masks off protesters and some people didn't like that, right?

I'm saying, why don't we put masks on witnesses, on judges, on me?

We've all, the legislators have been around.

We've had threats, newscasters, you know, anybody can say they've gotten threats.

I get that.

But that's the risk of being either in law enforcement or in the public arena.

But we can't start putting masks on everybody.

What I don't understand is we the Republicans were the ones that never trusted government, right?

Now all of a sudden, oh, we can trust government.

We can put masks on government.

Really?

When did that change?

So I don't want to hear this Republican Democrat thing.

This is something that's un-American.

Take the mask off.

I want to see your face if you hit me over I think people behind masks generally feel differently than if your face is exposed.

What is this Halloween?

So, not Halloween, but let me ask you this.

Are you concerned about, and we haven't seen too much of it here in New Jersey, I should say not publicly, but are you concerned about the number of citizens who have been detained by ICE?

Look, I don't have the numbers on that.

What concerns me is that there's no path to citizenship.

We've got people who've lived in this country for 25 years and who, their kids grew up here.

They don't know any other country.

Why doesn't the federal government create a path to citizenship for people who've been here 20 years, 25 years, 15 years?

I don't know what the number is.

But right now, they believe, and they've been under the impression that the government let them stay.

Now, all of a sudden, 30 years, and now you crack the whip.

I just think that's unfair.

So, bottom line is, I don't know how many citizens are being arrested or detained.

You know, I don't have those kind of statistics.

I do know that what's happening now is not getting the worst of the worst out of our country.

Just a very short time we have left.

I know you're in the minority party.

You can't set the political agenda.

But if you could, what would be one key priority you'd like to see this year?

I'd stop giving money away to my friends.

As I said previously, I would start being very fiscally conservative.

And I think what you heard today was the beginning of a governor who's saying, "Uh-oh, we're in big trouble."

And I think you have to admit it.

You can't paint a rosy picture.

You have to tell everybody, I'm going to be the highest property tax state in the country.

It's just time to change how we drive government.

All right.

State Senator John Bramnick, I knew you wouldn't hold back.

Thank you so much.

Under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

It's hard enough to be a foster kid without a home, a reality that many of us will never understand.

But recently, some kids in the foster system have faced an even greater challenge, not having a home to be placed into.

It's an issue that Sue Livio has dug into.

She's an investigative reporter for the Star-Ledger and NJ.com, and she's with us now.

Sue, thanks so much for talking with us today.

What can you tell us about what is happening within the child care system right now, the foster care system, where there's this shortage?

So, what I've been hearing for the last couple months is that they, the agency, the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, has had a hard time placing teenagers, kids with severe behavioral issues, some with autism, mostly teenagers but some younger, they have had to resort to motels and even using air mattresses in state offices to house some of these kids.

You wrote about, you said it reached crisis level when a youth who was detained or excuse me, who was staying over in an office ended up attacking two employees in Camden.

What can you tell us about that situation?

That happened a couple weeks ago now.

A security advisor and a casework supervisor were injured by a teenage girl who, according to CWA, the union involved had stayed and slept in this office before.

She had a breakdown, a meltdown, and both workers needed some medical attention.

They didn't need to go to the hospital, but they were injured.

And certainly everybody in the office was really shaken up.

Several years ago, about a dozen years ago, there was a near-fatal stabbing in the Camden office where this was by a parent who attacked a case worker.

So there were some people who were still around from that time.

It was very emotional.

Let me just jump in there because there's been over 20 years of court ordered changes to the way that the system is played out.

Why right now is there this shortage of the ability to place kids and and placing them we know in groups is no longer the recommended approach.

What needs to happen what is going on and what needs to change.

Well as you mentioned for 20 years New Jersey's child welfare system from 2003 to 2000 23 was under court supervision for being one of the worst child welfare systems in America for a lot of different reasons.

The state various governors and legislatures pumped billions into the system.

One of the things it did was recruit a lot more foster homes and stopped using group settings or at least cut back the pack on them dramatically because they knew that this was not great for kids to live in a place where people come in on shifts and not having real ties to a family.

So there was a philosophy that has continued to this day that the best foster home is one in which your relatives are providing that safe space or if not them, a stranger foster home who's trained.

The issue has always been it's tough to place teenagers, kids with behavioral problems, but the union tells me and some foster parents have told me that there has not been a lot of focus on recruiting more foster homes for this tough population.

And in all fairness, this is not unique to New Jersey.

The state points out that this is an issue in most states.

But here we have an assault.

Here we have kids sleeping in offices and motels.

Expensive and not safe.

Of course.

Representative from DCF the Department of Children and Families did deny that that Camden teen was staying at that office.

What do they offer as a solution amidst criticism of the commissioner Christine Norbert Beyer who we know is staying on.

There has been criticism there but what do they offer as a solution.

Well they said that they have been aware of this for a while.

They created a task force of national state leaders late last year to take a look at this to see what the solutions might be.

So we know they're paying attention to it.

But you know you talk to the union and foster parents and they say there has to be more involvement from the children's mental health system.

More places willing to accept kids with behavioral deficits and educational delays who are tough, that could be tough to be placed in a foster home.

There should be more, an expanded view of what it means.

You know, one caseworker told me, you know, some of these kids, they're so traumatized that they're just not going to make it in a family, that they actually need a group setting would actually help some of them.

And so there should be a variety.

And so we'll wait to hear what the commissioner says after the task force has taken a look, but I think you're going to see a push for more more spent on mental health placements for these kids.

And of course, at a time when state budgets are very tight.

Sue Livio, investigative reporter with the Star-Ledger and NJ.com.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

Finally, tonight, the New Jersey Devils gave a hero's homecoming to Jack Hughes, who scored the game winning goal to help the men's hockey team take gold in the Olympics.

>> The team brought the kids out onto the ice to share in the joy of their win.

As the celebration continued last night, Hughes took center ice with Olympic teammate Taige Thompson whose buffalo sabers Buffalo Sabres were facing off against the Devils.

Governor Mikey Sherrill presented Hughes with the Jersey State flag.

And Hughes took a moment to address the crowd and share what the Olympic win meant to him.

I'm so proud and I'm so happy that the men's and women's USA hockey teams brought gold medals back to the United States of America.

I'm so proud to represent the New Jersey Devils organization.

And I'm so, so proud to represent the great state of New Jersey.

So proud.

And that's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

For the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for being with us.

We will see you right back here tomorrow.

New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

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