New Jersey governor names new tech chief, announces ICE incident portal
As Mikie Sherrill sizes up what it takes to be a state’s chief executive during Donald Trump’s second presidency, the New Jersey governor on Monday named her administration’s new technology chief.
Kevin Dehmer, the state’s education commissioner, will serve as New Jersey’s chief technology officer. Dehmer, whom Sherrill called “a trusted and experienced public servant,” replaces Christopher Rein, who’d led the state’s technology operations from the Office of Information Technology since 2018. A press release from the governor’s office does not mention Rein, but a spokesperson from the Office of Information Technology plainly stated that the former tech chief “has decided to retire.” Weeks before she took office, Sherrill confirmed that Dave Cole, the state’s chief innovation officer since 2024, would continue in his role.
Dehmer, who joined the state’s Department of Education in 2007, before working his way up the ranks, is tasked with “instituting similar modernization efforts” to those he assisted at the education department, including a revamp of data systems used for education research and program evaluation, according to a press release from Sherrill’s office. Dehmer said he’ll focus on “digital infrastructure, ensuring state agencies can serve New Jersey residents more effectively and efficiently while also maintaining a strong emphasis on cybersecurity.”
He changes jobs as Sherrill, who replaced Phil Murphy when she took office on Jan. 20, boots up an administration that’s signaled a motivation to improve operations, and to do so without interference from Washington. On her first day as governor, Sherrill signed a series of executive orders, including one that created the “New Jersey Report Card,” a website fed by data from across the state, designed to keep tabs on how agencies are performing.
A former Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor and New Jersey state representative, Sherrill last week announced during a segment on The Daily Show that the state will soon publish a webpage that allows members of the public to upload videos and other information related to activity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During the interview, she deemed ICE’s recent murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti “unacceptable.”
California, Illinois and New York have created similar web forms, products of state officials who’ve condemned the Department of Homeland Security’s intrusions on their communities. Federal agents have all the while harassed, arrested and deported undocumented immigrants and legal United States citizens alike. (The New York Times reported last week that lower-level ICE agents have been told by the Trump administration that they now have the authority to make arrests without warrants as they sweep for those who would otherwise be “likely to escape.”)
New York Attorney General Letitia James last week led a group of 21 other state attorneys general in denouncing the Department of Justice for attempting to “coerce” Gov. Tim Walz. Attorney General Pam Bondi last month seemingly offered to withdraw her aggressive federal agents from his state in exchange for voter registration lists and safety-net benefits data. In a letter addressed to Bondi and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, the attorneys general judged that the requests were unlawful, made in bad faith and supportive of a “dangerous” “assault” on the public: “your letter reads as an after-the-fact attempt to justify a highly concerning federal operation, the execution and consequences of which raise serious concerns that are now receiving national attention.”
The letter cites legal reasons against states sharing such data, and notes that Bondi’s letter “demands access to voter rolls, which include sensitive information like social security numbers and driver’s license numbers for millions of Minnesotans, based on false rumors the Administration itself has perpetuated that undocumented people are engaging in mass voter fraud. Here, once again, the Administration seeks to obtain through threats and coercion what it cannot do through legal challenges.”
The letter continued: “We do not dispute the federal government’s authority to enforce federal immigration law. But that authority cannot extend to commandeering state governments, coercing the repeal of lawful, duly enacted state policies, or demanding broad access to sensitive records based on unsupported assertions.”
Seemingly in response to the backlash of the two recent murders by ICE agents, Noem posted on X on Monday that “effective immediately, we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis.” Smartphone footage of both incidents is already available, from several angles. There is also body-camera footage of the Pretti killing, but DHS has not released it to the public.
“As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” Noem’s post continued. “We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country. The most transparent administration in American history—thank you @POTUS Trump.”
