Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was detained Friday after refusing to leave a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 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 state. He has been taken into custody,” Habba said in a Friday post on social platform X. “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Baraka, along with three members of the New Jersey congressional delegation — Bonnie Watson Coleman (D), Rob Menendez (D) and LaMonica McIver (D) — tried to get access to the Delaney Hall ICE detention center.
Watson Coleman said on X that the facility was “opened without permission from the city & in violation of local ordinances. We’ve heard stories of what it’s like in other ICE prisons. We’re exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said a group of protesters, along with two members of Congress — Menendez and Watson Coleman — “stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”
The department added that the two House members and “multiple protestors are holed up in a guard shack, the first security check point.”
“Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Friday. “Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility. This is an evolving situation.”
The three members of Congress spoke after Baraka was detained, saying the ICE facility seemed to be safe and clean but slamming federal immigration agents for “roughing [them] up.”
“It was an act of intimidation not just to the mayor, not just to us, but to everyone who is watching,” Menendez said during the press conference, according to the New Jersey Globe. “They feel no weight of the law. They feel no restraint on what they should be doing. And that was shown in broad daylight today.”
Delaney Hall has been a point of contention in New Jersey. President Trump’s administration has said the jail is vital for assisting in its effort to detain violent immigrants in the country illegally, while local officials — including Baraka, who is running as a gubernatorial candidate — have argued the administration has not secured proper permits to house migrants at the facility.
The city of Newark filed a lawsuit against ICE in court last month, contending the agency did not provide city officials access to inspect the jail “under municipal ordinances and state code,” therefore violating city and state law.
The DHS rejected the allegations in the Friday press release.
“The allegations made by Newark politicians that Delaney does not have the proper permitting are false,” the DHS said Friday. “We have valid permits, and inspections for plumbing and electricity, and fire codes have been cleared.”
Updated at 4:38 p.m. EDT.
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