In State v. Molchor, the consolidated pretrial detention appeals raised the question: does the Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA or Act), N.J.S.A. 2A:162-15 to -26, authorize a court to detain arrestees who are undocumented immigrants in order to thwart their potential removal from the country by federal immigration officials, and thereby to assure they appear at trial? The Appellate Division concluded that it does not. Rather, the risk of a defendant’s failure to appear justifying detention must arise from the defendant’s own misconduct, not the independent acts of a separate arm of government that may prevent a defendant from appearing.
