The three New Jersey Democratic lawmakers accused of assaulting ICE officers at a detention facility in their home state are blaming law enforcement officials for allowing the confrontation to escalate.
Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Rob Menendez Jr. disagreed with a Department of Homeland Security official who suggested they could be arrested for their actions.
“We don’t have any idea why they would even suggest that because we didn’t do anything,” Ms. Watson Coleman said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We have no idea what they have in mind other than to create an environment of intimidation just by claiming we might be subject to arrest,” she added.
Ms. McIver rejected the claim from Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin that she body slammed a female ICE officer.
“I honestly do not know how to body slam anyone,” Ms. LaMonica McIver said. “We were simply there to do our job.”
Mr. Menendez said DHS and ICE had multiple opportunities to deescalate the situation but “chose not to.”
Their appearance on CNN comes after DHS released a video Saturday that it said showed a congresswoman assaulting a federal officer during a scuffle when lawmakers “stormed” into an ICE detention facility on Friday.
🚨WATCH: US Congresswoman, LaMonica McIver (wearing a red blazer), storms the gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center ASSAULTING an ICE agent. pic.twitter.com/4Q1deds1tl
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) May 10, 2025
On social media, the department identified the congresswoman as Ms. McIver, who was there with her two Capitol Hill colleagues and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
In the video, the congresswoman is seen jostling uniformed agents, including one moment where she seems to throw an elbow into one officer’s back and another where she appears to strike a different officer with a fist.
“US Congresswoman, LaMonica McIver (wearing a red blazer), storms the gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center assaulting an ICE agent,” the department said in its caption to the video.
Asked Sunday about possibly arresting the three Democratic members of Congress, Rep. Michael T. McCaul said, “that’s obviously a drastic move.”
“I would only do that if they were complicit in a crime,” the Texas Republican and member of the Homeland Security Committee said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding he does not know all the facts related to the encounter. “If they were just visiting a detention center, I have done that many times. If they’re disrupting law enforcement, that’s another question.”
“So, you know, we can peacefully protest in this country, but you cannot be complicit with gang violence against our law enforcement and I think perhaps that’s what it comes down to,” he said.
In her social media posts Friday, Ms. McIver chided Ms. McLaughlin for leaving her out of an early statement, citing just two members of Congress — Mr. Menendez and Ms. Watson Coleman —as involved.
None of the members of Congress were arrested, but Mr. Baraka was detained and later released.
Ms. McLaughlin said if the members of Congress had requested a tour, they would have been allowed in.
The incident has quickly become a new rallying point for immigration activists and congressional Democrats, who called the treatment of the lawmakers another example of what they call President Trump’s democracy-threatening acts.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
