New Jersey Congressional Rep. LaMonica McIver has been charged for allegedly having “assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement” according to a statement issued by US Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba on Monday evening. McIver and other elected leaders – Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka – had tried to enter Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on May 9, which ended in a scuffle with federal officers at the site who tried and ultimately succeeded in arresting Baraka. The statement also announces that the charge of misdemeanor trespass that was filed against Baraka, who is currently running for governor of New Jersey, would be dropped.
“I think the charges are absurd, it’s ridiculous,” McIver said on CNN Tuesday morning. “I was there to do my job along with my other colleagues. We have done this before. This is our obligation to do, it’s in our job description to have oversight over a facility, and the entire situation was escalated by ICE.” Days after the chaotic scene at Delaney Hall, Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost, Jason Crow, and Veronica Escobar jointly sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, reminding her of the statute that grants members of Congress the right to conduct oversight visits, and that such visits do not require prior notice.
Baraka had also been a vocal critic of the recent reopening of the Delaney Hall for its current purpose. The mayor of Newark told reporters last month that federal authorities operating the facility had not provided a certificate of occupancy to local officials and had not opened it for inspections, saying that local officials “don’t know what’s going on in there.”
Habba’s communiqué further stated that she had “given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined,” a claim that McIver contests. “The Justice Department and Alina Habba wanted me to admit to something I did not do,” McIver said on Tuesday. “And I was not going to do that.” Video of the incident shows McIver and the other Congressmembers surrounding Mayor Baraka as Ice agents try to arrest him, getting caught in a chaotic scuffle. The Congresswoman from Newark went on to state that once she and other elected leaders were allowed to conduct their inspection, they found that detainees were not being given due process, as they were not being granted access to legal representation.
In a statement, Mayor Baraka said that he stands with the Congresswoman, saying that he “fully expect[s] her to be vindicated.” McIver remains concerned with the implications of the charges against her: “if I’m gonna be charged with a crime for doing my job, it just speaks to where we’re headed in this country and what we’re dealing with as leaders.”
