A federal immigration agent said in an affidavit made public Tuesday that Rep. LaMonica McIver “slammed her forearm” into a federal officer and pushed and “used each of her forearms to forcibly strike” a second federal officer in an altercation outside an immigration detention facility.
The eight-page complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey included still images from body cams as McIver and other members of Congress visited for an inspection and federal immigration officers attempted to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespass.
The document lists two felony charges against McIver for “Assaulting, Resisting, and Impeding” law enforcement officers, and the affidavit from a Homeland Security Investigations special agent describes what he says happened May 9 after they ordered Baraka to leave the facility’s secure area because he was not a member of Congress.
The charges come amid high-profile tensions between the Trump administration and other branches of government over Trump’s attempted mass deportation efforts and assertions of broad executive power.
In an appearance Tuesday on CNN, McIver said she rejected a plea deal offered by Alina Habba, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump who is interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. McIver, who has called the charges “purely political,” said that Habba “wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do” and that she was there to conduct an oversight visit of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
“I’m not going to roll over and stop doing my job because they don’t want me to, or they want to neglect the fact that we needed to be in there to see what was going on in that detention center. And so, absolutely no, I was not going to do that,” McIver said.
Public video of the incident shows McIver between two apparent Department of Homeland Security officers during the altercation. The affidavit says the incident occurred “in tandem with an immigration protest rally” outside the facility.
The affidavit filed Tuesday said that McIver and two other members of Congress entered a secure area of the facility and were later joined by Baraka. The affidavit said that officers ordered Baraka to leave and that McIver and the other members of Congress intervened when they tried to take him into custody for trespass, a charge that now has been dropped.
McIver and other members of Congress surrounded Baraka and prevented an immigration agent from handcuffing him and taking him into custody, the affidavit states. At one point, after Baraka left the secure area, McIver faced Baraka and placed her arms around him.
“She and others encircled him in a ‘human shield’ effort to prevent HSI from completing the arrest that was initiated in the secured area,” the affidavit states.
The agent said that McIver “slammed her forearm” into an agent’s body and forcibly grabbed him. After the arrest, McIver pushed an ICE officer and “used each of her forearms to forcibly strike” the officer as she returned to the secure area.
The charges have reverberated across Capitol Hill, as Democrats have decried the charges as political targeting of McIver. On Tuesday, Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over a federal law that allows members of Congress to visit ICE facilities unannounced.
Noem argued that McIver and others entered the facility along with a group of “criminals” who stormed the facility. Noem offered no evidence for the claim.
“They can conduct oversight, but, senator, what I would ask is that they understand that that doesn’t mean they can show up with a mob with the intention to break in and assault law enforcement officers,” Noem said.
Kim pushed back on the characterization, saying that the altercation began after the members entered the facility.
In a statement Monday night, Tennessee Republican Rep. Mark E. Green, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would “hold her accountable.” Republicans have already introduced a measure to strip members who were present at the ICE facility on the day of the incident of their committee assignments.
Chris Johnson contributed to this report.
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