U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted Tuesday on federal charges alleging she impeded and interfered with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center in May during a chaotic shoving match in which the mayor of Newark was arrested.
“While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve,” Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba said in a statement on X announcing the grand jury indictment.
McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, called the charges “a brazen attempt at political intimidation.”
“This indictment is not more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump’s administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do,” she wrote in a statement on X.
The congresswoman, who was initially charged in May, said she will be entering a not guilty plea.
The three-count indictment stems from a May 9 confrontation that unfolded as members of Congress and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka visited the Delaney Hall facility on an oversight visit.
Members of Congress entered the facility, then came back outside to a fenced-in parking lot area to speak with Baraka, whom ICE officers had told to leave the facility grounds or face arrest.
A heated argument appeared to break out and continued even after Baraka returned to the other side of the gates.
From there, the record gets disputed.
The Department of Homeland Security accused protesters and members of Congress of having “stormed the gate” to try and break into the detention facility, and administration officials alleged McIver and others, including 80-year-old Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, had “body slammed, body rammed, pushed, [and] shoved” federal agents.
The members of Congress denied this account, and video of the encounter shows ICE agents, members of Congress, their staff members, and protesters all pushing back and forth in a chaotic scene, with officers eventually arresting Baraka and dragging him from outside the facility back into the fenced-off parking lot area.
“This scuffle, during which an ICE agent physically shoved me, occurred AFTER we had entered the Delaney Hall premises,” Rep Watson Coleman later said of what happened in a statement. “We entered the facility, came BACK OUT to speak to the Mayor, and then ICE agents began shoving us.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Habba initially charged Baraka with trespassing, but dropped the case days later, a reversal a federal judge called an “embarrassing retraction.” The mayor sued Habba earlier this month for defamation and “false arrest.”
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