By Aryana Berhane

During a press conference on July 29, Republican Congressional candidate Joe Hathaway addressed his stance on issues including foreign affairs, socialism and his relationship with president Donald Trump. He also explained his position on ICE and law enforcement. 

Hathaway is running in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district. Earlier in the year, during a special election, Hathaway lost to his challenger Analilia Mejia, who has called for ICE to be abolished and replaced. They are now meeting again for another face-off in the midterm election in November.

Under Trump, there has been a significant increase in deportations of immigrants in communities across the country. In January, meanwhile, citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge. Protests have broken out all over the country in response to the deportations and arrests of people. 

Hathaway expressed his support for ICE. “ICE has an important job to do. The vast majority of people in our country and in our state want safe communities. They want people who are committing crimes, to not commit crimes. They want them to be held accountable, and if they’re here illegally, they want them to be removed.” 

Hathaway added, though, that he believes there should be reforms to ICE. “Things like better training, or better equipment, better technology, body-worn cameras, things like that. We should absolutely be bringing those things to the table, so they can do the job of keeping our community safe,” he said. 

When asked about protections for protestors who are being injured at demonstrations, Hathaway stated that New Jersey sanctuary policies — which allow immigrants to report crimes without fearing their immigration status — prohibit local law enforcement from having contact with federal law enforcement. 

“Those laws do more to keep people less safe than they do to keep anybody safe… if we had federal officers able to communicate with local officers, [so] some local officers could know when, where, and how they were going about… making arrests or being in the community, they could do their job and help keep the community safe.”