Democrats are pushing for more confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials following the charges filed against New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver, according to Axios.
The prosecution of McIver has unified Democrats on immigration, an issue that tends to divide the party. Centrist Democrats with strict views on border security have also slammed the prosecution.
McIver was charged with two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer following an altercation that she and other House Democrats had with ICE officials in New Jersey earlier in May.
The incident took place outside the Delany Hall detention center. The facility holds migrants, and Democrats claim a private prison company is running it without the correct permits.
The lawmakers arrived unannounced for an oversight visit, where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was detained during the altercation. The Trump administration has claimed that McIver elbowed officers when they arrested the mayor, while McIver has said that it was she who was assaulted.
House Administration Committee ranking member Jay Morelle, a New York Democrat, said, “Members are getting increasingly angry and frustrated at the overreach, and now one of our members has been singled out for intimidation.”
Moderate Ohio Democrat Greg Landsman told Axios, "Democrats should be all over oversight. ... We have to double down. We have to do more."
Several groups within the House Democrats have had conversations about putting together oversight visits to ICE facilities during the recess scheduled for next week, several lawmakers told the outlet.
"Many of us were going to go visit anyway, and we're going to move those visits as soon as we can,” Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal said.
The chair of the Progressive Caucus, Texas Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, told Axios that the group has discussed “doing more of those visits,” adding that members want to show that they “will not be cowed” by Trump.
Individual House Democrats are also discussing making their own visits to ICE facilities during next week’s recess.
Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez told Axios, "I think we should be doubling down, and I think what you're hearing from our members is we need to be spending next week doing these visits.”
"I'm prepared to go to the detention centers in Indiana," she said. "If they're going to arrest me, then so be it."
Condemnation against the charges against McIver has been widespread among Democrats, who call them baseless and accuse the Trump administration of attempting to scare them into not conducting oversight.
The chair of the center-left New Democrat Coalition, Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider, said his “hope is that we don't let what the administration is doing — trying to stifle our voices — shut us down.”
California Rep. Juan Vargas told Axios: "When the shoe was on the other foot, we allowed Republicans to do these unannounced visits. There was no stopping them from doing that, there was no bull**** like that.”
"The idea that we're going to change course or do anything other than we've done previously is just not the case,” New Jersey Rep. Rob Menendez, who was at Delaney Hall, said.
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