The Justice Department announced today that it has filed charges against U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), alleging she assaulted law enforcement officers earlier this month at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Newark.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba made the announcement on social media platform X, accusing the Democratic lawmaker of “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche echoed Habba’s sentiment on X, stating that “assaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated.”
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In a direct response, Representative McIver issued a statement vehemently denying the charges, labeling them “purely political.” She expressed her anticipation of the legal process, stating she looks forward “to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”
The incident occurred during a congressional oversight visit to Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility within her district.
“Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district,” McIver stated. “We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka.”
The charges against McIver stem from an incident that also saw the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at the same facility. However, in a separate statement released Monday, U.S. Attorney Habba confirmed that her office has dropped the trespassing charges against Mayor Baraka.
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“After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward,” Habba stated, while cautioning that the dismissal of charges against Baraka, a prospective candidate for New Jersey governor, does not signify a complete resolution of the overall situation.
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