Three Congressional members made their way through the gates of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in New Jersey on Friday, insisting on conducting an “oversight visit.”
Reps. Rob Menendez Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman, and LaMonica McIver, all hailing from New Jersey and part of the Democratic Party, arrived at ICE’s Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. They were stopped at the initial checkpoint, according to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who spoke to Fox News.
“This act of members of Congress intruding into a detention facility is more than an unusual political move and poses risks to both the safety of our law enforcement personnel and the detainees,” a DHS statement provided to Fox News declared. “Members of Congress must adhere to the law and cannot unlawfully enter detention facilities. If these members had requested a visit, we would have arranged a tour of the facility. This is an ongoing situation.”
The prison currently holds alleged killers, MS-13 gang members, child rapists, among other criminal offenders.
Members of Congress bust into ICE detention facility in New Jersey (X / @RepBonnie)
McIver said the “lack of transparency around what’s happening with ICE in this facility is unacceptable. People deserve dignity and we need answers.”
In a press conference on Monday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said GEO Group is “following the pattern of the president of the United States who believes that he can just do what he wants to do and obscure the laws, national and constitutional laws, and they think they can do the same thing in the state of New Jersey and in Newark.”
On Friday, Baraka was taken into custody at the facility, according to Alina Habba, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” Habba wrote on X. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the City of Newark on April 1 alleges that GEO Group failed to permit entry to safety inspectors and violated city construction code, including by conducting electrical and plumbing renovations without proper oversight.
The Department of Homeland Security said the allegations by Newark politicians that Delaney does not have the proper permitting is false.
“We have valid permits and inspection from plumbing, electricity to fire codes has been cleared,” the agency said.
Fox News Digital’s Max Bacall contributed to this report.
