The Trump administration warned three Democratic lawmakers Saturday that arrests are “on the table” after they participated in a protest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, the place town’s Mayor Ras Baraka was collared.
“There will likely be more arrests coming. We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer. So we will be showing that to viewers very shortly,” Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin advised CNN Saturday morning.
“This is an ongoing investigation, and that is definitely on the table.”
New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver joined fellow Democrat Baraka — the frontrunner within the Backyard State’s gubernatorial race — Friday at ICE facility Delaney Corridor, which is owned by GEO Group and which they’re looking for to shutter after it opened Tuesday.
The state’s US Legal professional Alina Habba on Friday confirmed Baraka’s arrest, saying he “dedicated trespass and ignored a number of warnings from Homeland Safety Investigations to take away himself from the ICE detention middle in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon.
“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW,” she added on X.
Nonetheless, Baraka on Saturday blamed DHS for his arrest, claiming the company “escalated” the incident.
“The reality is Alina Habba wasn’t there; the US attorney wasn’t there. She doesn’t know what happened,” he stated.
“Clearly, that is not the context of what happened. I was there for over an hour in that space, and nobody ever told me to move … not a single person, not an officer from ICE, not any of the security guards, nobody told me to leave that place,” Baraka insisted.
“Somebody from Homeland Security came in the end and began to escalate the situation, and we wind up being where we are today, and that’s, frankly, the extent of it,” he added.
The mayor was launched from custody Friday night time.
Video posted to X earlier that day confirmed him being walked in handcuffs by Homeland Safety Investigations officers.
“I didn’t go there to break any laws. I didn’t break any laws,” Baraka acknowledged earlier Saturday.
Newark Metropolis Councilmember Kenyatta Stewart agrees with the mayor’s characterization of the go to to Delaney Corridor.
“They invited him in. A Geo security guard actually opened the door for him,” Stewart advised The Submit. “Then, as we were waiting for the congressman, they asked him to leave, and he did, and they arrested him outside the gate.”
Members of Congress are legally permitted to go to any ICE facility by means of their oversight authority, however these rights don’t pertain to Baraka.
On Tuesday, he confirmed up with picketers and a bulldozer to aim to stop the opening of the ICE facility, which was beforehand a migrant detention middle below the Obama administration.
Baraka has claimed that the jail is working illegally, claims which the power’s proprietor Geo Group has denied.
Earlier Saturday, roughly 100 rowdy demonstrators congregated in Foley Sq. in Decrease Manhattan to protest Mayor Baraka’s arrest at an organized occasion attended by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
