Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) speaks throughout a rally on the U.S. Treasury Division in February 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Jemal Countess/Getty Photographs for MoveOn
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Jemal Countess/Getty Photographs for MoveOn
The Justice Division has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, for allegedly assaulting legislation enforcement officers outdoors an immigration detention facility final week.
The costs have been introduced on social media by the interim U.S. Legal professional for New Jersey, Alina Habba, who beforehand served as a private lawyer for President Trump.
In line with courtroom papers filed on Tuesday, McIver faces two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and a Homeland Safety Investigations particular agent throughout a confrontation outdoors the Delaney Corridor detention facility in Newark.
Democrats have denounced the costs as politically motivated and an effort by the Trump administration and the Justice Division to intimidate members of Congress and chill oversight.
Habba mentioned she tried to deal with the matter with McIver and resolve it with out bringing fees, however that the congresswoman declined.
“Nobody is above the legislation — politicians or in any other case,” Habba mentioned. “It’s the job of this workplace to uphold justice impartially, no matter who you’re. Now we are going to let the justice system work.”
McIver denounced the costs towards her, calling the case “purely political.”
“They mischaracterize and deform my actions, and are supposed to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” she mentioned in a press release. “I stay up for the reality being laid out clearly in courtroom.”
Delaney Corridor is the primary new detention middle to reopen throughout Trump’s second time period, after closing in 2017, because the Trump administration seeks extra detention area for arrested migrants. A number of native officers protested its official reopening earlier this month.
McIver mentioned she and her colleagues have been on the facility to conduct lawful oversight of the remedy of detainees there. The go to ought to have been brief and peaceable, she mentioned, however as a substitute changed into an pointless confrontation when ICE brokers selected to arrest Newark Main Ras Baraka.
Baraka had been going through a misdemeanor trespassing cost, however Habba mentioned in her assertion that she has dropped the case towards him.
The Justice Division’s resolution to carry fees towards McIver acquired rapid pushback from congressional Democrats and New Jersey state officers.
The highest Democrat within the Home, Hakeem Jeffries, and his management group known as the costs “excessive” and “morally bankrupt,” and mentioned they lack any authorized or factual foundation.
“We’re lawfully permitted to point out up at any federal facility unannounced to conduct an inspection on behalf of the American individuals,” they mentioned in a press release. “By visiting the detention middle in Newark, Rep. McIver and two different Members of Congress have been upholding their oath of workplace. They did not assault anybody, however have been themselves aggressively mistreated by illegally masked people.”
