Alina Habba is just as good a prosecutor as she was a civil litigator.
The post ICE Arrests Newark Mayor For … Ummm, Body Slam? appeared first on Above the Law.
May 12, 2025 - 20:42
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Not content with arresting judges, ICE is now arresting mayors who have the temerity to object to rounding up immigrants and warehousing them in ICE detention facilities.
On Friday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka attended a protest at Delaney Hall, a private prison owned by The GEO Group which just inked a 15-year, $1.2 billion contract to run a 1000-bed immigration facility in his town as a hub “serving” the New York metro area. Baraka attended multiple protests before, but this time Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Monica McIver, and Rob Menendez, Jr. were also in attendance. By law, they have the right to enter the facility and conduct oversight. It appears from the footage that Baraka entered the gate with the Representatives, and was immediately told to leave, which he did. Then ICE agents opened the gate, left the facility, grabbed Baraka, dragged him back inside, and arrested him.
The government’s account of the event ranges from the dubious to the preposterous. DHS put out a statement saying:
Today, as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center, a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility. Representatives Robert Menendez, Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman and multiple protestors are holed up in a guard shack, the first security check point.
Here’s the moment my colleagues and I were let into Delaney Hall. The idea we “stormed” a heavily guarded federal detention center is absurd – just more lies from the most dishonest administration in history. https://t.co/STInAtrNjkpic.twitter.com/T7WWFNqSFG— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) May 11, 2025
DHS spox Tricia McLaughlin accused them of “body slamming a female ICE officer.” The agency released footage “exclusively to Fox News” which the station described as Rep. McIverson jostling and screaming at agents in an attempt to break into the facility. But as Rep. Menendez pointed out, they didn’t have to break into Delaney Hall or even make an appointment, as a matter of statute.
No matter what this Administration tells the American people, the law is very clear: Members of Congress have a legal right to enter any DHS detention facility to conduct oversight without prior notice – something I’ve done twice this year without issue. pic.twitter.com/YMY2r9DXtS— Rep. Rob Menendez (@RepMenendez) May 10, 2025
Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Acting US Attorney Alina Habba (God help us!) insists that Baraka trespassed and refused to leave the facility.
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. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this…— US Attorney Habba (@USAttyHabba) May 9, 2025
The criminal complaint, sworn out by Special Agent Ricky Patel, alleges that Baraka violated New Jersey’s misdemeanor trespass law. (Presumably, they did not complain under the federal trespass law because it has a higher scienter requirement.) The magistrate released the mayor on his own recognizance.
Meanwhile, Axios reports that the feds plan to arrest more people, potentially including the Representatives. So perhaps we’ll be having yet another constitutional crisis, this one involving the Speech or Debate clause. Add it to the pile — you can put it on top of the $400 million Qatari bling jet.
