After the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka, was arrested Friday for protesting outside of a new immigration detention facility, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official is threatening to arrest three more elected officials who were present.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Baraka, who is running for governor, on Friday after he and three Democratic members of Congress from New Jersey—Rep. Robert Menendez, Rep. LaMonica McIver, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman—sought to enter the facility, called Delaney Hall. The officials said they were conducting an “oversight visit” at the detention center, alleging that city officials and fire inspectors had previously been denied entry. Federal law states that members and employees of Congress have the right to enter ICE facilities for oversight visits and that they do not have to provide advanced notice in order to do so. Videos from the scene show Menendez, McIver and Watson Coleman asking guards to let them in and seemingly being denied.
They were eventually allowed to enter the facility, but Baraka was not. According to Watson Coleman, she and the other representatives went to speak to the mayor after exiting the facility, and that’s when the arrest occurred. Video of Baraka’s arrest shows him, McIver and Watson Coleman clinging to each other as the officers surround them and eventually pull Baraka away. McIver subsequently said in a post on X that ICE “shoved me, manhandled [Watson Coleman], and arrested [Baraka]”; Watson Coleman also said an ICE agent “physically shoved” her during the scuffle.
In a post on X, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and Interim US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba claimed that Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations,” adding, “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.” But at the scene, McIver said that Baraka was arrested after he had already complied with ICE officials’ directives to leave a restricted area while waiting for the members of Congress to exit the facility, and that he “did nothing wrong.”
Baraka was released from detention within hours and charged with federal trespassing, he said. “I didn’t go there to break any laws. I didn’t break any laws,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday night. Federal and state Democratic officials promptly condemned Baraka’s arrest. Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) said he was “outraged” by the arrest, calling Baraka “an exemplary public servant who has always stood up for our most vulnerable neighbors.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) blasted ICE’s response in a lengthy statement, saying, “keep your hands off of members of Congress.” Attorney General Matt Platkin (D-N.J.) said Baraka’s arrest was “deeply troubling.”
But all this has not stopped DHS from threatening to arrest the other officials who were at the scene. On Saturday, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said on CNN, “There will likely be more arrests coming,” alleging that body camera footage shows “some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer.”
Baraka and the members of Congress reject those allegations. Baraka told CNN host Victor Blackwell on Saturday, “None of those people body-slammed any officer.” On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning, McIver told host Dana Bash, “I honestly do not know how to body-slam anyone. There’s no video that supports me body-slamming anyone.” She called for DHS to release the full, unedited body camera footage. Menendez added that there were more than 20 “heavily-armed” ICE agents at the scene, whose faces were covered and who were lacking identification.
DHS did not immediately respond to questions from Mother Jones.
All this comes after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters on Friday that the administration is considering suspending habeas corpus, or the right of individuals to challenge their detention—even though it is enshrined in the Constitution and only Congress can suspend it in cases of “rebellion or invasion.”
Consider what something like this could mean for people like Baraka, the New Jersey members of Congress who are being threatened with arrest, or the international students who the administration has jailed on spurious grounds. Through all of this, the administration is sending one message loud and clear: There is no rule of law.
