() Democratic New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver is now facing assault charges after a protest outside of an ICE detention center in Newark.

McIver says the charges being brought against her are “political intimidation.”

Charles Marino, a former adviser for the Department of Homeland Security, joined ‘s “The Hill” to talk about the charges. Marino also made an appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to testify in a hearing on examining threats to ICE, where he called McIver’s visit a “political ambush” and said no congressional oversight was carried out.

“This was a congresswoman and a mayor showing up alongside protesters and attempting to breach the outer perimeter of a detention center that’s housing very dangerous illegal immigrants in the country committing additional crimes against Americans,” Marino said.

Marino said he believes some Democrats are starting to realize that the party lost the 2024 election due to their stance on immigration and that the party is still only focused on the issue from a political standpoint and not on safety.

“They are still not acknowledging the very dangerous criminal and national security threats that were allowed to come into the country,” Marino said. “So we’re halfway there.”