Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba has launched an investigation into an incident in which Democrats stormed and allegedly trespassed at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center.
Habba revealed in a post on X that her office was “undertaking a thorough investigation” regarding an incident at Delaney Hall ICE detention center on Friday, where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was arrested for criminally trespassing.
“My office is undertaking a thorough investigation in coordination with our Federal Agency partners of what transpired on Friday at Delaney Hall,” Habba said. “As is true of every investigation this office handles, all available evidence will be thoroughly review prior to making a determination on how to proceed. I do not take these matters lightly.”
As – News previously reported, Habba announced on Friday that Baraka has “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the” ICE detention facility.
Baraka had joined Democrats such as Reps. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) at Delaney Hall to conduct federal oversight of the ICE detention center.
After Baraka’s release, he claimed that he “didn’t do anything wrong,” according to News12 New Jersey.
While Democrats such as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have criticized the Trump administration for arresting Baraka and shoving “Members of Congress,” Vice President JD Vance pointed out in a post on X that being a Member of Congress “doesn’t give you the right to ‘obstruct the rule of law.”
“As the honorable Ro Khanna himself has said, being a member of Congress doesn’t give you the right to ‘obstruct the rule of law,’” Vance wrote in a post sharing a screenshot of a post from Khanna.
In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared a video in response to Watson Coleman claiming during an interview on CNN that “nothing happened” and that the Democrat Members of Congress were “pushed and shoved.”
In the video shared by DHS, Democrats can be seen pushing and shoving law enforcement officials.
On Friday, DHS released the mugshots and criminal records of several of the detainees being held at Delaney Hall Detention Center, and revealed that “as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate,” a group of protestors, which included “two members of US Congress, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”
“Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”
On Monday, a group of roughly 50 clergy members gathered outside of the ICE detention center to protest, with several people saying “prayers for the inmates inside the facility,” according to Fox News.
One of the protesters told the outlet they would not move and would be there “as long as it takes until people start to realize this is not acceptable.”
