New Jersey lawmakers approved a package of three bills this week that would sharply limit cooperation between state and local authorities and federal immigration officers, a move Republicans say unlawfully interferes with federal authority and mirrors a growing Democrat-led effort nationwide to curb Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“You want boundaries that legally can’t be crossed to protect criminal aliens who couldn’t respect our legal borders themselves,” state Assemblyman Paul Kanitra, a Republican from Ocean County, said during a nearly 10-hour voting session in the Garden State on Monday.