Federal prosecutors have criminally charged a Democratic member of Congress who was caught up in a scrum with masked federal agents and protesters outside an immigration detention center in New Jersey.
Alina Habba, Donald Trump’s personal attorney who was appointed to interim U.S. Attorney of New Jersey, announced on Monday that her office filed charges against Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver for having “assaulted, impeded and interfered” with law enforcement.
On May 9, McIver joined two other House Democrats from New Jersey and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to tour the recently opened Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, which has drawn frequent protests as Democratic officials demand answers from the administration about the conditions inside.
Baraka was turned away from the visit and asked to leave, then arrested by federal agents and charged with misdemeanor trespassing. Chaotic video from the scene and officers’ bodycam footage shows officers shoving and holding back protesters at a gate to the facility. Agents appeared to swarm around Baraka and block protesters from the fence as they tried to stop his arrest.
But Habba simultaneously announced on Monday that her office is dismissing Baraka’s case “for the sake of moving forward.”
Criminal charges against a sitting member of Congress escalate threats from the Trump administration under an emboldened Justice Department to target his political enemies. Last week, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called federal law enforcement agencies targeting members of Congress a “red line.”
Formal charging documents were not immediately made public. Habba’s announcement cited a federal statute that makes it a crime to assault, impede or resist a federal officer, a felony if it involves physical contact.
“I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined,” Habba said.
In a statement on Monday, McIver said the lawmakers “were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short.
“Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka,” McIver said.
“The charges against me are purely political — they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” she added. “This administration will never stop me from working for the people in our district and standing up for what is right. I am thankful for the outpouring of support I have received and I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”
The Independent has requested comment from LaMonica’s office. The Department of Justice deferred comment to Habba’s office, which did not respond to The Independent’s request.
A decision to charge McIver is “spectacularly inappropriate,” according to a statement from Paul J. Fishman, a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey serving as McIver’s counsel.
“As a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees. Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos,” he added.
“This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICE’s behavior to Congresswoman Mclver. In the courtroom, facts — not headlines — will matter,” he said.
Following the incident at the detention center, Fox News shared video provided by the Department of Homeland Security that officials argued shows McIver “shoving” past a DHS agent. A law enforcement officer also shoved McIver as she was trying to reenter the facility, according to McIver and lawmakers as well as video from NJ Spotlight News.
“What we just witnessed was disgusting,” McIver said outside the facility following Baraka’s arrest earlier this month. “If they can treat three members of Congress like that, just imagine how they can treat people on the street each and every day.”
Administration officials claimed McIver and others, including 80-year-old Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, had “body slammed, body rammed, pushed, shoved, whatever you want to call it, it was assault,” according to Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
“We’ve reviewed the body cam footage shared by DHS which confirms what we’ve said from the beginning: ICE agents put their hands on Members of Congress and arrested the Mayor of Newark on public property,” a spokesperson for Watson Coleman said May 10. “Nobody was ‘body slammed,’ nobody ‘assaulted’ any agents, and this footage confirms that.”
