Things continue to escalate as the Department of Homeland Security handles the aftermath of a number of Democratic elected officials storming an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the town of Newark, New Jersey, with one of the members of Congress involved even having body-slammed a female ICE officer.
It so far appears that Reps. LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Rob Menendez were the ones who stormed the Newark ICE facility on Friday, May 9, called the Delaney Hall Detention Center, and they were allegedly joined by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested and charged with trespassing over what happened during the violent confrontation.
Since then, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has appeared on numerous cable news programs to explain that the members of Congress involved will likely face both arrest and charges. Those appearances included on on Fox News Channel, during which she explained that members of Congress are not above the law when it comes to the repercussions of assaulting officers.
The program on which she explained as much was “Fox News Live” hosted by FNC personality Kevin Corke. During that appearance, sh noted, “If it was a typical U.S. citizen, and they tried to storm into a detention facility that’s housing dangerous criminals or any person at all, they would be arrested.”
Continuing, McLaughlin noted that numerous DHS and ICE agents were assaulted by the mob during the incident in which the facility was stormed, explaining that they are not above the law. She said, “Just because you are a member of Congress or just because you’re a public official, does not mean you are above the law.
Adding to that, McLaughlin also told Corke that anyone who assaults officers will have to face the justice system and that more arrests are likely going to be made. She said, “If you assault a law enforcement officer, we will also make sure you answer to justice. So, I think that arrests are still on the table for this. This is an ongoing investigation.” Watch her here:
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Rep. McIver, the congresswoman accused of shoving around ICE personnel, insisted in a post on X that really the whole incident was the fault of the federal agents she attacked, as they were disrespectful of the violent mob and arrested some members of it. She said, “The way we were treated at Delaney Hall is almost unbelievable. ICE shoved me, manhandled @repbonnie, and arrested @rasjbaraka. They disrespected us and tried to stop us from conducting the oversight we’re elected to do. But we’ll never back down in our fight for what is right.”
Others involved insisted that they were in the right as well. Rep. Watson Coleman, for example, wrote, “Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not ‘storm’ the detention center. The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground[s] that they didn’t even correctly count the number of Representatives present.”
Similarly, the legal team for Mayor Baraka told Fox News Digital, “They did this on a charge of trespass, a municipal charge which would normally be handled by way of a ticket. His subsequent release by the court demonstrates that there was no reason to believe that this well-known and widely respected public official was either a flight risk or a danger to the community that he served.”
Watch Rep. McIver (in red) assault federal agents here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video