3 lawmakers involved in Newark protest could be arrested, DHS says

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security suggested Saturday that three Democratic members of Congress might face assault charges after a confrontation outside an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, during the arrest of the city’s mayor, even as new details emerged that appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s account of the surrounding events.

The three lawmakers — Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver, all of New Jersey — were inside the facility Friday for what they described as a congressional oversight visit, which they have the right to conduct under federal law. The facility, Delaney Hall, received its first detainees May 1 and is eventually expected to hold as many as 1,000 migrants at a time.

Soon after the legislators left the building Friday afternoon, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka was arrested by the head of Homeland Security Investigations in a brief but volatile clash that involved a team of masked federal agents wearing military fatigues and the three lawmakers. He was then taken to a separate federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city and released five hours later.

Precisely what led to Baraka’s arrest on federal trespassing charges, in a public area outside a facility that is owned by a private prison company, remains unclear. But much of what unfolded was recorded by journalists, as well as by cameras worn by law enforcement officials and videos taken by activists protesting nearby.

Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokesperson, told CNN on Saturday that a body camera video showed “members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer.”

The episode was under investigation, she said, and charges against the three lawmakers were “definitely on the table.”

But videos the Trump administration released to Fox News appeared to be far from conclusive, and accounts of the confrontation from witnesses and the members of Congress differ in significant ways from the government narrative.

On Friday, after Baraka’s arrest, Watson Coleman, 80, described being “manhandled” by agents who were attempting to arrest the mayor, who was at the center of a large group of aides and supporters in front of the gates to Delaney Hall.

“There was just consistently, and across the board — especially with the folks in uniform — no respect for who we were and no respect for the mayor,” she said Saturday on MSNBC.

In February, the Trump administration entered into a 15-year, $1 billion contract with GEO Group to turn Delaney Hall into a large detention center as ICE rushed to expand its detention capacity nationwide to meet President Donald Trump’s mass deportation goals.

Newark officials have since argued in federal court that GEO Group, one of the country’s largest private prison companies, is operating without a valid certificate of occupancy. After Delaney Hall began housing detainees May 1, Baraka, a Democrat who is running for governor, began showing up regularly and requesting that he and fire officials be allowed to enter and inspect the facility.

Each time, the facility’s personnel turned them away and fire officials issued tickets for code violations.

Federal officials and a GEO spokesperson said the mayor had ignored established processes for requesting entry. They have also said that the facility had all the required permits, and have described the mayor’s repeated visits as a political stunt.

On Friday, the dispute escalated significantly.

That morning, Baraka said he stopped by Delaney Hall to request entry, was denied and left to take one of his children to school. He returned hours later for a news conference that the three lawmakers had planned to hold after touring Delaney Hall.

A security guard opened Delaney Hall’s locked front gate and allowed Baraka to enter but barred him from joining the congressional representatives inside, Newark officials said.

“If I was on that property, I was invited there,” Baraka said Saturday in Newark. “Somebody allowed me. I didn’t climb the fence, I didn’t kick the door down.”

He and several aides waited for more than an hour inside the perimeter of the detention center before he was asked to leave, according to Baraka and two of his aides.

By that point, Menendez, Watson Coleman and McIver had left the building and were standing near the mayor, according to a video taken by Viri Martinez, an immigration activist who witnessed the arrest.

After several requests that he leave, Baraka complied, according to two members of his group and video recordings.

“Guy told me to leave. I left. I’m gone,” Baraka said Saturday.

However, more than a dozen federal agents went out through the gate and arrested him anyway, placing him in handcuffs and leading him away.

Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, has said that Baraka was arrested after he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself.”

McLaughlin described the chaotic scene as a “mob,” with the lawmakers, their aides and federal law enforcement officers jostling just outside the facility’s gate.

“We weren’t trying to start anything,” Watson Coleman said on MSNBC. “We weren’t trying to do anything. We were trying to protect the mayor from what we thought was an unlawful arrest.”

Across the Hudson River, several New York City lawmakers and Democratic mayoral candidates joined more than 100 protesters at a rally in lower Manhattan. Speakers praised Baraka and condemned the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, for working with the Trump administration.

“When they come for the mayors, it’s already pretty bad,” said Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller who is running for mayor.

Another candidate for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who represents Queens in the state Assembly, also spoke.

“What Mayor Baraka has told us,” he said, “is you cannot fight extremism with moderation.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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