During an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka stated that he didn’t go to an ICE facility in his city to get arrested, “But this is a moral moment. It’s like Jim Crow, when leaders from all faiths, elected officials, community activists, decided to put themselves in harm’s way to get rid of a system that was dangerous, that was unequal, that treated people inhumane[ly].”

Host Kyra Phillips asked, “Democrats…are clearly desperate for their elected officials to stand up to Trump. Is getting arrested the right way to do this, just showing up every day like this the right way to go?”

Baraka responded, “Well, I’ll tell you what, we’re in a moral moment. And I’m going to reiterate this, that I didn’t go there to get arrested. I went there to be a part of a press conference. I want to say that over and over again, because people keep saying that I went there to get arrested, which is not true. But this is a moral moment. It’s like Jim Crow, when leaders from all faiths, elected officials, community activists, decided to put themselves in harm’s way to get rid of a system that was dangerous, that was unequal, that treated people inhumane[ly]. And this is the moral moment that we’re in today. We can choose to ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist or do something about it.”

He added, “I wouldn’t blame anybody if they protested.”