New Jersey: A-3092wGR/S2415, signed by Governor Murphy along with two other immigrants’ rights bills on January 12, 2024, will require State agencies to disaggregate data for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI), Middle Eastern and North African (MENA), and South Asian and Indian Diaspora communities.

The bill was led by members of New Jersey’s AANJPI Legislative Caucus, including Senator Vin Gopal and Assembly Member Sterley Stanley. New Jersey regularly outranks other states in its share of AANHPI and MENA populations, and thanks to the leadership of community organizations and sponsors, the bill had broad bipartisan appeal within the Legislature. The Legislature concurred with the Governor’s conditional veto to afford State agencies the flexibility to comply with any distinct data collection and reporting practices required by federal laws, regulations, programs, or surveys, and to account for evolving standards and guidance that may be issued by the federal Office of Management and Budget or the United States Census Bureau in the future. In their final push to get this legislation passed, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice and its members leveraged findings from The Education Fund’s Disaggregation Nation report to demonstrate that many states disaggregate health data without the concerns raised in opposition to the New Jersey bill, and used the report to help navigate discussions with the Governor’s office on the need for data equity to address education and health disparities.

• Governor’s office press release
• Background and statements on the bills from New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice and other advocates who worked to pass them