The Democratic mayor of Newark and members of Congress from New Jersey “stormed” an ICE detention facility on Friday, authorities said.
Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman and Mayor Ras Baraka were part of a broader group of protesters who rushed into the Delaney Hall Detention Center just as a bus of new detainees was entering the security gate, according to Homeland Security officials and local news reports.
Ms. Watson Coleman said on social media that she considered her action part of her “oversight authority” to inspect the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
But the intrusion drew a rebuke from Homeland Security, which said the two members of Congress were “holed up” at a security checkpoint Friday afternoon.
“Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at Homeland Security.
She said the lawmakers should have requested a tour.
She also disputed the claims that Delaney was not properly permitted.
“We have valid permits, and inspections for plumbing and electricity, and fire codes have been cleared,” she said.
Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba in New Jersey said Mr. Baraka has been arrested for his incursion.
“The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark,” she wrote on social media.
“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody,” she said.
The two members of Congress were allowed access, however.
Speaking to reporters afterward, they said they felt they’d been roughed up in the turmoil.
“It was an act of intimidation not just to the mayor, not just to us, but to everyone who is watching,” Mr. Menendez said, according to the New Jersey Globe.
The protests are the latest by Democrats who object to President Trump’s stiff new immigration enforcement policies.
Other actions include making pilgrimages to El Salvador to try to visit deported MS-13 gang suspect Kilmar Abrego Garcia and leaping to support a local judge in Wisconsin who is accused of a federal felony for helping an illegal immigrant escape from ICE officers looking to make an arrest outside her courtroom.
Immigration activists considered Mr. Baraka the latest martyr and demanded he be freed.
“No sitting mayor of an American city should be arrested for trying to inspect an immigration facility in their jurisdiction,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also decried his fellow Democrat’s arrest.
“Mayor Baraka is an exemplary public servant who has always stood up for our most vulnerable neighbors. I am calling for his immediate release by federal law enforcement,” the governor said.
