“After repeated verbal warnings and due to officer safety concerns, ICE officers relied on their training and attempted to safely remove the illegal alien from their car. The illegal alien then proceeded to flee at a high rate of speed and collided with other vehicles,” an ICE spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Authorities said the man eventually entered U.S. 130 in North Brunswick. He allegedly ran a red light before crashing into a Tesla.
The crash left people inside the other vehicle injured. Among those hurt was Cohen’s wife, adding a politically explosive dimension to an incident that might otherwise have remained primarily an immigration enforcement case.
The circumstances immediately reignited an ongoing fight in New Jersey over the role local law enforcement should play in assisting federal immigration authorities.
Republicans in the state quickly pointed to New Jersey’s restrictions on cooperation with ICE, arguing that policies designed to limit routine collaboration between local agencies and federal immigration officials can have consequences when suspects attempt to evade federal officers.
Republican Assemblyman Paul Kanitra was particularly critical of Democratic leaders, accusing them of refusing to confront what he described as the public-safety consequences of the state’s immigration policies.
“This is just the latest in a long line of traffic incidents and vehicular incidents that wouldn’t occur if New Jersey didn’t have our sanctuary status that got codified as soon as Gov. Sherrill came into office,” Kanitra told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Friday.
“We all fought against it. We told them that this would create chaos, and it seems like Democrats are unable to take accountability for their own actions.”
Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation in March codifying New Jersey’s policy limiting certain forms of state and local cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement.
Supporters of the policy maintain that restricting local involvement in federal immigration enforcement can help build trust between immigrant communities and local police. They argue that people may be more willing to report crimes or cooperate with investigators if they do not fear that contact with local authorities could lead to immigration consequences.
Republicans have a very different view.
Critics say restrictions on cooperation can make it more difficult for ICE to locate and arrest individuals who are subject to federal immigration enforcement. They also argue that federal officers may face greater risks when attempting to conduct operations without routine assistance from local authorities.
Kanitra said Democratic officials should consider whether the state’s policies played any role in creating circumstances that led to dangerous encounters.
“Democrats seemingly have an inability to take accountability for their own actions here. They’re unable to even recognize the chaos that they’re creating, and they’re shouting and screaming at everybody else trying to find somebody to blame. It’s somewhat ridiculous,” Kanitra said.
“You kind of reap what you sow,” he said, adding that people in his district have been killed in previous crashes involving immigrants who were in the country illegally.
Kanitra also cited another case involving an immigrant accused of driving into a family outside a kosher supermarket, resulting in the death of an infant.
“They got behind the wheel, and they wound up killing an innocent toddler in the process,” he said, calling the circumstances of the situation “absolutely abhorrent.”
Republican state Sen. Mike Testa likewise attacked New Jersey’s restrictions on cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Testa pointed to 287(g) agreements, which allow participating state and local law enforcement agencies to work with federal immigration authorities under specific arrangements.
“I think it has only emboldened illegal aliens to engage in illegal behavior. This illegal alien was stopped lawfully by federal authorities, ran through a red light, fleeing federal authorities and unfortunately ran into the mayor of East Brunswick’s wife.”
Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, whose district includes the area where the crash occurred, offered a dramatically different response.
Rather than directing her criticism toward the fleeing driver, Watson Coleman attacked ICE itself.
“Today, it appears an ICE involved car chase resulted in an accident involving the wife of the Mayor of East Brunswick. Abolish ICE,” Watson Coleman tweeted.
Testa immediately pushed back.
He argued that the political focus should remain on the individual who allegedly fled from federal officers and drove recklessly, rather than on the agency attempting to make the arrest.
“This is just another example of lawlessness. And sadly, there’s been a stamp of approval from radical leftists like Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman saying ICE should be abolished rather than actually punishing the criminal that put multiple citizens’ lives at risk,” he said.
At the center of the larger dispute is New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive and related state policies governing cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities.
State officials maintain that the rules do not prevent police from enforcing criminal laws. They also say the policies allow agencies to comply with judicial warrants and assist federal immigration authorities in emergency circumstances.
Republican lawmakers remain unconvinced.
They argue that limiting routine cooperation can create an enforcement gap and make certain federal operations more difficult. From their perspective, Wednesday’s crash illustrates the potential dangers that can arise when immigration enforcement becomes separated from local policing.
The incident also reflects a much broader national argument over immigration enforcement: whether aggressive federal action or restrictions on local cooperation pose the greater threat to public safety.
Testa framed the issue in terms of the benefits and responsibilities associated with American citizenship.
“And we believe quite literally that citizenship should have its privileges. I’ve made this comment many times,” Testa said.
“You know, I’m a child of the ’80s — and the old American Express commercial was ‘membership has its privileges’ — well, citizenship should have its privileges,” he said.
For Republicans, the North Brunswick crash is evidence that New Jersey’s immigration policies deserve renewed scrutiny.
For Democrats and immigration advocates, the incident raises a different question: whether high-risk federal immigration operations and vehicle pursuits are themselves putting innocent residents in danger.
Either way, the collision has injected new urgency into New Jersey’s already bitter immigration debate.
With the wife of a Democratic mayor among those injured, the political consequences could extend well beyond Wednesday’s crash. What began as a federal enforcement operation has become another battlefield in the escalating confrontation over sanctuary policies, local police cooperation and the limits of federal immigration enforcement in New Jersey.
