My source was my intimate familiarity with the way criminal "justice" in my state works - my wife interned her way through law school assisting public defenders in Newark.
The Sheriff's office is apparently allowed to inquire into the immigration status of those in custody as they ran his social security number on Thursday after he was arrested, found out it was fake, then notified immigration.
Because this case is now so publicly notorious that if his lawyer tried to get the immigration violations struck on the grounds that running the SSN number was a violation of his civil rights, the judge would have to face angry community leaders.
If this case were not a headline case, immigration status would not have been questioned.
I'm not surprised at any of it either though, NJ is a cesspool.
The NJ state government is a cesspool because the urban centers which the entire state government's structure was predicated on: Newark, the Hudson County cities, Trenton and Camden - are all slums run by Democratic machines.
See, you should have said that to begin with!
As to the rest of your post you will find no disagreement here. I will add that even though it's the urban centers to blame, it doesn't change the fact that all of NJ government is a cesspool. Take it from this Morris County resident.
And the red state of Texas is what?
2006 last year, Dallas Texas- 500,000 Illegals and their supports march on Dallas making demands and threats.
Not to mention that Dallas's crime rate is now way higher than Los Angeles and many other cities.