Following her proposal to ban sanctuary cities, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno doubled down on her stance against her opponent’s support of making New Jersey a sanctuary state.

Guadagno held a news conference Thursday in Middlesex County, which she said is a sanctuary county, in an effort to make her point.  

The current lieutenant governor focused on 36 criminals who Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials recently re-arrested. The criminals were released from the Middlesex County Jail, which the Guadagno said should have never happened, adding it does not comply with federal immigration detainers.  

The former federal prosecutor and Monmouth County sheriff listed some of the offenses that the re-arrested criminals were already convicted of before being released.  

“Child abuse, possession of heroin, distribution of heroin and aggravated assault. These individuals were convicted of those crimes and then released back out into the Middlesex County community,” Guadagno said.

Guadagno said that declaring a sanctuary city or county, or what she says Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy talked of doing, making New Jersey a sanctuary state, is not only dangerous, but also a violation of federal law.  

Carlos Rendo, Guadagno’s running mate and the only Republican Latino mayor in New Jersey, said that as a Cuban immigrant, this is not ab issue about black or brown, but about federal law and keeping New Jersey safe.  

According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, Murphy maintains a lead over Guadagno. Of those polled, 57 percent said they back Murphy, while 37 percent back Guadagno.

Democrats did lose about five percentage points since the last poll.