The Department of Homeland Security issued a stark warning for lawmakers who were involved in a clash which led to the arrest of Newark’s mayor outside an ICE detention center.

‘You will face justice,’  DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told CNN.

‘Whether you are a civilian, a mayor, or a member of Congress, if you are storming an an ICE detention facility and putting law enforcement and detainees at risk, you can bet that we will arrest you and you will face the law,’

Her warning came after Mayor Ras Baraka was dramatically detained outside Delaney Hall ICE detention center.

He and Democrat Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, and LaMonica McIver were at the facility as part of an oversight visit.

DHS accused the representatives of breaking into the detention center, which they have denied.

McLaughlin also claims that DHS bodycam footage shows them barging past officers and even ‘body slamming’ one. 

Video footage showed frantic people scrambling outside the gates of the facility on Friday, before Baraka was arrested and escorted away by police.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a stark warning for three lawmakers who were involved in a clash which led to the arrest of Newark’s mayor outside an ICE detention center

Mayor Ras Baraka was dramatically detained outside Delaney Hall ICE detention center and charged with trespassing on Friday

The mayor was detained for ‘trespassing’ according to Alina Habba, the US attorney for the state, who said he ‘ignored multiple warnings’ by Homeland Security Investigations to leave.

He has since been charged with trespassing in federal court and released without bond.

Baraka maintains he did ‘nothing wrong’ and was there to oversee the facility. 

‘We were just simply there to do our jobs,’ McIver told CNN. ‘Our job is oversight. We were there to do that. That’s simply it. We did not come there to try to break people. We did not come there to cause chaos or cause any trouble.’

Coleman accused DHS of ‘lying’ about what happened in a post on X.

‘This scuffle, during which an ICE agent physically shoved me, occurred AFTER we had entered the Delaney Hall premises,’ she wrote.

‘We entered the facility, came BACK OUT to speak to the Mayor, and then ICE agents began shoving us.’

Baraka was detained after he gained access through a gate and then allegedly refused to heed warnings to leave.

Baraka claims he was trying to join the New Jersey representatives as part of an oversight visit to the facility

The visit quickly descended into a scuffle between ICE officers and the politicians

Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join the three members of New Jersey´s congressional delegation in attempting to enter the facility.

When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.

‘I’m shocked by all the lies that were told here,’ Baraka said, who said he had been invited there for a press conference. 

‘No one else arrested, I was invited in, then they arrested me on the sidewalk.’

Baraka, who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration. 

He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.

Last week he attempted to ‘break in’ to free migrants housed there, vowing to turn up daily until he was let in.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the lawmakers had not asked for a tour of Delaney Hall, which the agency said it would have facilitated. 

The DHS told Congresswoman Rep. LaMonica McIver, Rep Rob Menendez and Rep Bonnie Watson Coleman (L-R) that they would ‘face justice’ 

Baraka’s arrest was heavily criticized and sparked a protest in New York City 

 The department said that as a bus carrying detainees was entering in the afternoon ‘a group of protesters, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.’

Ned Cooper, a spokesperson for Watson Coleman, said the three lawmakers went there unannounced because they planned to inspect it, not take a scheduled tour.

‘Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not “storm” the detention center,’ Watson Coleman said in a statement. 

‘The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn´t even correctly count the number of Representatives present. 

‘We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident.’

Baraka’s arrested prompted furious protests on Saturday in neighboring New York.