(Bloomberg) -- Governor-elect Phil Murphy is pushing for New Jersey to have the nation’s first Sikh state attorney general, a job he expects to become high-profile as President Donald Trump meets resistance on immigration and civil-rights restrictions.
Murphy, a Democrat who takes office in January, on Tuesday announced his first Cabinet nomination: Gurbir Grewal, 44, the Bergen County prosecutor since January 2016 and a former assistant U.S. attorney. The son of South Asian immigrants, Grewal called himself a proud resident of one of the nation’s most culturally and ethnically diverse states, and one who had “experienced hate and intolerance firsthand.”
“Our state need someone with a steel backbone who will not be afraid to stand up to President Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress to protect the rights and s of our state and of all 9 million of our residents,” Murphy said at a news conference in Trenton.
The appointment comes a day after a pipe-bomb explosion underneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. Trump used the incident to call for the U.S. to “fix its lax immigration system.”
Akayed Ullah, the 27-year-old suspect, came to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 2011 on a family immigrant visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That policy is “incompatible with national security,” Trump said in a written statement.
Grewal, a registered Democrat and married father of three from Glen Rock, was appointed to the county position by outgoing Governor Chris Christie, a Republican. Grewal must be confirmed for the state post by a legislative committee and the full state Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.
Earlier this year, Grewal ordered Mahwah Township police not to enforce local restrictions on park visits by out-of-state residents, an issue that arose as Orthodox Jews from New York expanded an eruv, or ritual Sabbath boundary, over state lines. Middle-of-the-night vandalism to parts of the eruv are under investigation as a hate crime.
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