Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) Thursday tried to walk back comments that he was housing an immigrant who might be in the United States illegally and daring federal officials to remove her.
“I didn’t suggest that, with all due respect,” Murphy told reporters following a meeting with New Jersey Democratic lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol. “People who have complete clean status, including American citizens, are wigged out right now. I probably could have said it better, but that’s the point that I’m making.”
Murphy sparked outrage from Republican lawmakers and federal officials over the weekend when he told a progressive grassroots organization in an interview that he and his wife, Tammy, were considering housing an unnamed migrant to protect her from possible deportation as the Trump administration conducts nationwide arrests.
“Tammy and I were talking about — I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy told Blue Wave New Jersey. “And we said, ‘You know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage.’ And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her.”
Murphy’s office later clarified there was no migrant living at his home, a point he reiterated to reporters on Thursday amid the political fallout over what he described as a gaffe.
“We never have and never will violate any immigration laws in the United States. That’s never going to happen. I promise you that,” Murphy said. “Nobody ever came to my house. Nobody was ever coming to my house.”
He continued, “Do we support aggressive action against folks whose cases have been adjudicated negatively, who are still in the country? Yeah, that’s not right. They shouldn’t be here. Do we feel the same way about folks who have committed serious crimes in the United States, awaiting their hearings? They shouldn’t be here either. I’m not going to stand up for either of those categories. But the point I’m making is that there are millions more who are here for the right reasons, and many of them right now who are really anxious, have got completely clean status, including a lot of American citizens.”
Murphy’s initial eyebrow-raising comments earned him a threat of prosecution from President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, a call for his impeachment by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, and turned him into a political punching bag for conservatives who say Murphy’s position symbolized the Democratic Party’s soft stance on illegal immigration.
Murphy downplayed the GOP criticism as a “political shot.”
“Where’s the humanity about a person who’s, by the way, an American citizen, who was in a broader community, and this person is completely anxiety filled?” he told the Washington Examiner. “Let’s remember we’re Americans, values that we have as our country, that we’re there for each other.”
Murphy has not had any conversations since his remarks with Trump or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He “exchanged messages on an unrelated topic” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
New Jersey is a sanctuary state that limits cooperation with federal officials seeking to deport illegal immigrants, a status that Murphy defended but said is a “verbiage or a label that we’ve never really accepted.” Murphy’s second term ends in January 2026, and he cannot run for reelection because he is term limited. He said it would be a “big mistake” for his successor to change the state’s sanctuary status, which was implemented in his first term.
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Known as the Immigrant Trust Directive, New Jersey prohibits state law enforcement officials from coordinating with ICE operations.
“If you’re here and you’re committing a crime, with all due respect, you should go,” Murphy said. “But if you’re here for the right reasons and you’re not committing a crime, federal immigration enforcement and authority is just that — with the feds. Our job at the state and local level is law enforcement against crimes.”