well as lawmakers worked inside the State House immigrant Advocates were outside celebrating immigrant Heritage day and calling for the passage of a number of bills aimed at Immigrant services and social justice making a final plea as the legislative session comes to a close this week and lawmakers head for summer break putting those priorities on hold until the fall and very likely until after the November election senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports a palestinian-american dabka team danced outside the State House Annex part of a rally aimed at focusing lawmakers attention on immigrant Justice bills that have languished in the legislature Advocates support measures to enhance language access and privacy Protections in New Jersey they are insufficient protections to keep New Jersey from voluntarily helping ice nor collecting information that could fall into the hands of the federal immigration enforcement Eric Cruz Morales is with the alliance for immigrant Justice which supports the values act it would bar state county or Municipal officials from stopping questioning arresting searching or detaining any individual based on actual or suspected immigration status former State Attorney General gerbir greywal already directed law enforcement to follow similar guidelines the values act would extend it to Social Services says wind of the spirits Adam McGovern we've had at least one member who once they moved to the community no ever enrolled their kids in school period because they were afraid of you know getting called you know gotten by ice and taken away from their kid what they were afraid the school would report them they were he says it's why many immigrants hide in the shadows one new dad did get reported to Ice by a Health Care Agency even though the man had temporary protected status he was about to take his wife to the emergency room because she was having complications of the Cesarean and Ice was waiting for him in their driveway and took him away I am here in full support of your mission I recognize the importance of human dignity and human life in New Jersey Senator Gordon Johnson co-sponsors the values active Bill drafted by democrats as is the language access bill which would require state government to make vital documents available in the 15 most common non-english languages in New Jersey it's a barrier even when folks are eligible for services families who do not always speak English as a first language and they struggle to get their rights met in these places immigrant children should not be burdened with the responsibility of interpreting for their families their kids we shouldn't adultify them we're doing all of this work without actually reaching out to folks speaking the languages that they do and making sure that they understand their rights and feel empowered and comfortable applying the language access bill would be phased in five languages a year over three years to help minimize costs we reached out to Republican legislative offices which had no comment on the bills the Democratic majority controls which bills move through committee we are tired of being told that our communities already receive enough we are tired of being told that services and programs for our communities are too complicated lawmakers are facing budget votes and political campaigns so neither bill is expected to move until the post-election lame duck session at the State House Annex in Trenton I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News