A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday suggested the Trump administration could pursue arrests of the House Democrats involved in an incident at a New Jersey Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on Friday and accused them of assaulting ICE officers.
“I think that we should let viewers know there will likely be more coming,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN on Saturday morning.
“We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer,” McLaughlin said.
Her comments were in response to a question from CNN’s Victor Blackwell, who asked whether others were arrested Friday in addition to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was charged with trespassing.
Asked whether that meant a member of Congress could be arrested in connection with Friday’s events, McLaughlin told Blackwell, “This is an ongoing investigation, and that is definitely on the table.”
She added that ICE was in possession of video evidence documenting the incident.
Later on Saturday, McLaughlin posted a video on X showing chaos outside of the detention facility, writing, “We will not tolerate assault against our ICE law enforcement agents. By members of Congress or anyone else.”
Her remarks came one day after three members of Congress — Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver, all New Jersey Democrats — visited the Delaney Hall detention facility to conduct oversight, according to statements from two of the lawmakers.
“As Members of Congress, we have a legal right to conduct oversight at any DHS facility without prior notice, as we have already done twice this year. Throughout every step of this visit, ICE attempted to intimidate everyone involved and impede our ability to conduct oversight,” Menendez said in a statement Friday. “This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and I am shocked and disturbed that something like this happened in our community.”
And McIver said in a statement that the lawmakers were met with “contempt, disrespect, and aggression from ICE.”
“From roughing up members of congress to arresting the mayor of our state’s largest city, there is no version of today that does not show the blatant abuses of power of the Trump administration,” she added.
None of the three members of Congress mentioned seeing any kind of violence against ICE officers during their visit to the facility.
And in a post on X on Saturday, Watson Coleman denied McLaughlin’s allegations, writing, “The notion that I or any of my colleagues ‘body slammed’ armed federal officers is absurd. DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line.”
“They have to resort to lies because their conduct is indefensible on the merits. They can threaten us all they like, but their lies are still lies. We will not be intimidated,” the congresswoman added.
A spokesperson for DHS referred NBC News to the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney, Alina Habba, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spokespeople for Menendez and McIver also did not immediately respond to a request for comment about McLaughlin’s remarks.
Baraka appeared on CNN directly after McLaughlin and called her allegations of assault “ridiculous.”
“I’m waiting for them to show a video,” he added.
Baraka pointed out that Watson Coleman, 80, is an older woman, “who probably couldn’t lift any of them.”
“None of those people body-slammed any officer,” Baraka added.
The Newark mayor also denied the charges that he was arrested on on Friday, telling Blackwell, “I was not trespassing at all. I mean, we’re in court, so we’ll argue that in the court.”
