A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that “there will likely be more arrests coming” for members of Congress who were present when Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside a federal immigration detention facility in New Jersey on Friday.
In an interview on CNN Saturday morning, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told anchor Victor Blackwell that the agency was reviewing body camera footage that allegedly showed elected officials pushing and shoving federal agents.“We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer. So we will be showing that to viewers very shortly,” McLaughlin said.
“You say a video of members of Congress body slamming ICE officials?” Blackwell asked.”That’s correct sir, it’s disgusting,” she replied.”OK, and so, if you have that video, are you suggesting that members of Congress will be arrested who were there yesterday?” Blackwell continued.”This is an ongoing investigation and that is definitely on the table,” McLaughlin replied.
The members of Congress – Democratic Reps. LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, all from New Jersey – came to the Delaney Hall facility on Friday to conduct an oversight visit. As they waited to be let inside, they were joined by Baraka, who was arrested and detained by federal agents after a scuffle. Video of the incident shows McIver and Watson Coleman in the middle of the crowd, being pushed and shoved by federal officers. Both claim that the officers were the ones who assaulted them – not the other way around.“We’ve reviewed the body cam footage shared by DHS, which confirms what we’ve said from the beginning: ICE agents put their hands on members of Congress and arrested the mayor of Newark on public property,” said Ned Cooper, a spokesperson for Watson Coleman’s office. “It also proves that DHS has been lying about this incident — blatantly lying. Nobody was ‘body slammed,’ nobody ‘assaulted’ any agents, and this footage confirms that.”
In an interview Saturday morning on WNYC’s “Morning Edition,” Watson Coleman called McLaughlin a “liar” for accusing the members of Congress of “breaking and entering.”“She’s lying,” she said. “But lying is something this administration does. Lying and allowing people to abuse the rights of individuals and to deny due process and to be disrespectful of anyone they don’t like.”Baraka was charged in federal district court with one count of trespassing. Magistrate Judge Andre M. Espinosa ordered his release without bond. He and the other elected officials said they were not trespassing, and did not “storm” the facility, as DHS claimed.DHS did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday, and instead referred Gothamist to the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba.Habba’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the wake of the incident in Newark, lawmakers and a few dozen members of the Working Families Party rallied outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan to protest what they called “ICE’s attacks on political dissidents.” The attendees included two Democratic candidates for mayor: City Comptroller Brad Lander and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.“This is a moment when it is essential that New Yorkers, New Jerseyans, that Americans stand up for everyone’s rights,” Lander, who visited the ICE jail in Newark on Friday night, said at the rally. “Bending the knee, that is what tyrants want. They depend on fear. They depend on cowardice. They depend on capitulation.”
