Hudson County employees will soon undergo “Know Your Rights’ trainings in the wake of recent county executive orders and state laws, officials told the county board of commissioners.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
Hudson County Counsel Alberico De Pierro told the board that the seminars would soon be implemented to county employees in the wake of Hudson County Craig Guy’s executive order earlier in the year and legislation signed into law by Governor Mikie Sherrill.
De Pierro said there have been seminars for the public already held by Deputy County Counsel Reana Garcia and Director of Health and Human Services Darice Toon, but internal guidance will be issued soon.
“With respect to county employees, as several members of the external committee are here and know, we are working with Jersey City and other municipalities on ‘Know Your Rights’ trainings for the employees in compliance with our county executive’s executive order, and it’s a collaborative effort,” De Pierro said at Thursday’s commissioners meeting.
“Those will hopefully be rolled out soon. Obviously, they will also be, before they’re rolled out, shared with our director of human resources to collaborate and help us in scheduling them.”
According to De Pierro, he has been working with Jersey City Corporation Counsel Sarah Levine and other respective department heads on the sessions, which will be implemented simultaneously in Jersey City soon.
O’Dea noted that the sooner, the better, underscoring the urgency of the training due to ongoing actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We’re doing a lot of things, obviously. We’re also doing them now internally for our employees,” De Pierro noted.
O’Dea further questioned what training had been implemented in the wake of Guy’s executive order. Jeremy Sullivan, of the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, told the board that training required per the Immigrant Trust Act has already been implemented.
“That training has already been done and completed by all sheriffs officers. When the state comes out with any further training – there is none that exists right now – the state would issue it through NJLearn … The sheriff’s department will disseminate it to all adducers, superiors, and they’ll be trained,” he said.
Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) inquired if the training would be bi-annual, something he thought would be in accordance with guidelines issued by the state attorney general.
Sullivan told the board that for directives, that would not be the case, as they only need to receive it once and sign off on it, but that any further training from the state will be issued to all officers.
O’Dea followed up if there was any training implemented as a direct result of any executive order from Guy.
Sullivan confirmed that there was not, but De Pierro stated that all training pursuant to the Immigrant Trust Directive would also naturally encompass the contents of the executive order.
“The sheriff’s office, as a constitutional agency, has their own trainings under AG guidelines. We’re going to do all of the county employees,” De Pierro explained.
Further, De Pierro told O’Dea and Romano that training was all-encompassing of the attorney general’s order.
He added that they are training non-law enforcement employees at the HCSO, alongside other civilian employees, in how to react to an ICE encounter.
“We as county employees in our respective departments … we’re going to be trained on what we can and cannot do pursuant to all the relevant laws in New Jersey, our county executive’s executive order,” De Pierro explained.
“So that if, God forbid, an ICE agent comes into a county building in one of our respective departments, our employees, our colleagues, all of us, we will all know what to do, what we can and cannot do, and that’s what we are working in collaboration with other municipalities, because we are all going to be rolling it out when it’s ready.”
Sullivan said that since starting as a local police officer 26 years ago, one of the first things he learned was that they don’t enforce federal law. He called for more faith from the public and the board in the sheriff’s office and how they approach ICE.
“The one thing we learned as a local police officer right from the beginning in 1994 when I went on the street, we do not enforce federal law. Plain and simple,” Sullivan said.
“So I think there needs to be some trust here that our local police departments, the Sheriff’s Office, knows that we do not enforce federal immigration law.”
Laster, before closing the meeting, Romano, a retired Hoboken police captain, extended his gratitude to the HCSO for the work they do following earlier criticisms.
“I just want to thank the Hudson County sheriff’s officers for the outstanding job that you do, day in and day out, with many difficult responsibilities,” he said.
“I know in my heart that you will protect all the people in this county, no matter what their status is.”
