Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that the Trump administration’s arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center was “shameful.”
Guest host Antonia Hylton said, “I need to ask you two, if you’ve seen the images coming out of Newark, of the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka, and some of your colleagues were there on the ground with him in this incredible scene. You know, we see a congressman right there in the center, sort of stuck in, in this tug of war with officials on the ground there. What’s your reaction to this and what his arrest represents?”
Garcia said, “This is completely shameful and outrageous. Members of Congress have a right to visit these facilities. It happens all the time. And for this to happen to the mayor and to colleagues, people, all of which I know and respect — is a dark, dark day for our country. Members of Congress have the right to do oversight and to visit these facilities.”
He added, “Kristi Noem, the secretary who oversees Homeland Security, is creating her own immigration laws. She’s not following the Constitution. They’re deporting people that don’t have any right to due process, and they’re sending people to these facilities that essentially have gotten no day in court. They have had their due process stripped from them. And so we’ve got to speak up. It is unconscionable that the mayor would get arrested this way. So we are going to call this out. Secretary Noem will be in front of our committee on Homeland Security this week. You can rest assured that she will be asked the tough questions about how this happened to the members of Congress and the mayor.”
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