Federal authorities are weighing potential criminal charges against three Democratic members of Congress from New Jersey after a confrontation Friday at the Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark escalated into physical altercations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The incident, which involved U.S. Reps. LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Rob Menendez, was captured on body camera footage, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Saturday that "arrests are still on the table" for the lawmakers. "Just because you are a member of Congress or just because you're a public official, does not mean you are above the law," she told Fox News. "If you assault a law enforcement officer, we will also make sure you answer to justice."
The lawmakers were accompanied by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested at the scene and charged with trespassing. "He has willingly chosen to disregard the law," U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba wrote on X. "That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW."
DHS alleges the delegation forced entry as a detainee transport bus was entering the ICE facility, prompting a confrontation with agents. In a video shared by DHS, McIver is seen in a red blazer barreling through a line of officers. DHS claims the footage shows her assaulting a female agent.
McIver responded on X, writing that she was "assaulted by multiple ICE officers while regional directors of ICE watched it happen." Watson Coleman echoed the claim, stating they were "manhandled" by agents and pushed without provocation. "Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not 'storm' the detention center," she wrote.
DHS maintains the incident is under active investigation. "We actually have body camera footage of these members of Congress assaulting these ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer," McLaughlin said in a CNN interview.
Watson Coleman's office disputed the characterization. Their Office has “reviewed the body cam footage," and It proves "ICE agents put their hands on Members of Congress," a spokesperson said. "Nobody was 'body slammed,' nobody 'assaulted' any agents, and this footage confirms that."
Baraka's legal team condemned the arrest as politically motivated and "unjustified." "His subsequent release by the court demonstrates that there was no reason to believe that this well-known and widely respected public official was either a flight risk or a danger to the community that he served," his attorneys said in a statement.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries weighed in Saturday, defending the lawmakers and demanding the identification of the "masked agents who physically accosted two Congresswomen."
The confrontation followed the reopening of Delaney Hall to house migrant detainees under private management. The lawmakers argued the facility lacks necessary sanitation and safety permits. Yet after touring the center, Watson Coleman noted, The conditions "aren't bad ... it's clean, they're feeding them."
