Rep. Nancy Mace wants to expel Rep. Lamonica McIver from Congress after she was charged with assaulting two federal agents outside a migrant detention facility.
Ms. Mace announced Wednesday she filed a resolution to expel Ms. McIver, saying the New Jersey Democrat “didn’t just break the law, she attacked the very people who defend it.”
“Attacking Homeland Security and ICE agents isn’t just disgraceful, it’s assault. If any other American did what she did, they’d be in handcuffs,” the South Carolina Republican said in a statement. “McIver thinks being a Member of Congress puts her above the law. It doesn’t. She should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Ms. McIver was charged with two counts of “assaulting, resisting and impeding certain officers or employees” after getting physical with federal law enforcement officials at the Newark facility.
Ms. McIver had denied doing anything wrong and downplayed the charges as “purely political.”
“I think the charges are absurd,” she said on CNN. “It’s ridiculous. I was there to do my job.”
She also laid the blame at the feet of law enforcement.
“The entire situation was escalated by ICE. They caused the confrontation,” she said.
But in court documents, Robert Tansey, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security, said that Ms. McIver visited the facility last month on the same day as a protest, allegedly for oversight reasons.
Video cameras show Ms. McIver and another member of Congress slipping into a secure area of the facility when a security gate opened to let a vehicle in.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka then crashed on the scene, but was told he could not enter the facility without prior authorization. However, Mr. Baraka was led in after a security team member thought he was part of the congressional delegation.
Mr. Baraka was later ordered to leave the secure area. He refused and was arrested, but charges were later dropped.
However, Ms. McIver stepped in to prevent the mayor’s arrest, shouting, “’Hell no! Hell no! Hell no!’” before joining others to form a “human shield’ around the mayor.
During this time, Agent Tansey said Ms. McIver “slammed her forearm into the body” of an agent and “pushed an ICE officer.”
A shortlist of lawmakers has been expelled from the House.
The last finance came in late 2023 when the House voted to expel Rep. George Santos, the scandal-plagued New York Republican. This made him just the sixth member of the chamber to be booted out by his colleagues.
“Members of Congress swear an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this country — not to obstruct them,” Ms. Mace said. “This isn’t a matter of partisan politics. It’s about whether we’re going to hold Members of Congress to the same legal standards as every other American.”
