New Jersey mayor arrested at ICE facility protest

The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested Friday by federal authorities at a U.S

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey confirmed

The mayor of Newark, Raz 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 state. He has been taken into custody. No one is above the law

Alina Habba wrote on X. Mayor Baraka and three other members of Congress were at the facility

on Friday taking part in a demonstration protesting the opening of Delaney Hall

the federal immigration facility. The members of Congress were going to take a scheduled tour

of the facility, but the Associated Press reports that Baraka was denied when he tried to accompany

them. Baraka spent the week opposing the opening of the ICE detention center, which officially

opened on May 1st and is run by a private prison company, Fox 5 reports. New Jersey Representative

LaMonica McIver was at Delaney Hall Friday saying the facility does not have the proper permits to be

open and that congressional members have the power to conduct oversight. We're here conducting an

oversight visit which we have the power to do as congressional members Statutory authority And so that is what we here for And we waiting to speak to a supervisor to let us in here because as you can see they will not let us in New Jersey Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman was also at Delaney Hall

Friday and said the federal immigration building opened without permission from the city in

violation of local ordinances. Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said

the Congress members' allegations are false. In a post on X, Homeland Security claims that

as a bus full of detainees entered Delaney Hall's security gates, a group of protesters

including two members of U.S. Congress, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility

adding the allegations by Newark politicians that Delaney does not have the proper permitting

is false. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary to the Department of Homeland Security

accused congressional members of assaulting ICE agents and breaking into the ICE detention

facility. This illegal breaking and entering of a detention facility puts the safety of our

law enforcement agents and detainees at risk, she wrote. Representative Coleman refuted the claims

posting on X that she and the other lawmakers did not storm the detention center. New Jersey

Governor Phil Murphy condemned Mayor Baraka's arrest, saying that he's outraged by the decision

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan. For more on this story, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com