() Several House Democrats are potentially facing criminal charges after a heated altercation that broke out at a New Jersey Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility Friday.
The Department of Homeland Security is now saying the Trump administration is taking a closer look at the arrests of those involved in alleged assaults of ICE officers at Delaney Hall Detention Center.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin tells via email that this is an open and active investigation, but she stopped short of repeating her comments over the weekend that there will be more arrests coming.
Amid Friday’s chaos, Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and is accused of trespassing after federal agents say he ignored warnings to leave.
Alina Habba, the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, wrote on X Friday that Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey.”
Baraka was released from custody five hours later, without bond, and no plea was entered.
“That is a dispute. We could be wrong. They could be wrong, but you know who solves disputes? Courts. That’s why we have courts. Courts solve disputes, not ICE,” he said after being released.
Attention has now turned to three Democratic members of Congress also present: Representatives LaMonica McIver, Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
The DHS says ICE bodycam footage shows McIver pushing and elbowing her way past a Homeland Security agent to get through the gate and into the property.
The three members of Congress say they were assaulted and deny that they tried to storm the facility. They can be seen screaming in the faces of the DHS agents.
Tension between ICE agents and local elected officials has also escalated in Worcester, Massachusetts. The police union in Massachusetts wants criminal charges brought against the District 5 City Councillor Etel Haxhiaj.
Two people were arrested Thursday as ICE detained a Brazilian woman who was accused of violent crimes, via Boston 25. About two dozen people blocked this unmarked car, with one woman even standing in front of it while holding her baby. Officers on the scene say they were assaulted and that the council member helped stir everything up.
