The Department of Justice announced on Monday it had charged a New Jersey congresswoman with assaulting federal agents during a clash outside a new immigration detention center in Newark and was dropping a trespass charge against the city’s mayor that emerged from the same episode.
Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, disclosed the move in a post on X, saying that the congresswoman, LaMonica McIver, had been charged “for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” when she visited the detention center with two other Democratic members of Congress from New Jersey on May 9.
“No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise,” Ms. Habba said in a statement. “It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.”
She added that she had sought a resolution without bringing criminal charges, but that Ms. McIver had declined.
In a statement on Monday, Ms. McIver blamed federal law enforcement for instigating the clash, saying that “ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation.”
“The charges against me are purely political — they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” she said.
Ms. Habba also announced that she had dismissed a misdemeanor charge for trespass against Ras J. Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, whose arrest had precipitated the flare-up with federal agents after he sought to join the lawmakers on their tour of the detention center but was denied entry.
She said she had dismissed the charge “for the sake of moving forward.”
Ms. McIver and the two other lawmakers — Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez — have pushed back against the Trump administration’s contention that the legislators stormed into the detention center. The federal government’s narrative has also been contradicted by video footage and by witnesses who were at the scene.
The lawmakers visited the detention center on May 9 to conduct an oversight visit. They said that they were allowed inside to tour the 1,000-bed facility, which opened this month amid resistance from local officials who are opposed to President Trump’s deportation efforts.
Ms. McIver and the other lawmakers, as well as the mayor’s supporters, formed a physical circle around Mr. Baraka, video shows, leading to jostling and a confusing scrum that the Trump administration has sought to cast as a violent mob attack on federal officers. Federal officials arrested Mr. Baraka and charged him with trespassing, a misdemeanor; Mr. Baraka had said he was being selectively prosecuted.
Both sides have pointed to videos from the chaotic scuffle — from recordings by protesters to footage from body cameras released by the Department of Homeland Security — to accuse each other of instigating the altercation, which did not appear to lead to any injuries.
Footage from a body-worn camera shared by Fox News shows the lawmakers and a group of officers outside the facility’s fence. At one point, Ms. McIver appears to make contact with a law enforcement officer wearing fatigues and a face mask as she is finding her way to the gate.
A second video captured a verbal disagreement between Ms. McIver and several officers. The lawmaker, who is standing with her back against a car and is surrounded by officers in tactical gear, can be heard screaming at officers and saying, “Ma’am, he just assaulted me.”
After the incident, Ms. McIver said she had been shoved by officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Paul J. Fishman, a lawyer for Ms. McIver, called the decision to charge the congresswoman “spectacularly inappropriate.”
“As a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees,” he said. “Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos.”
Republicans have seized on the episode to portray Democrats as more interested in protecting the immigrants with criminal records they said are being held inside the facility than U.S. citizens.
In television interviews and on social media, Department of Homeland Security officials have for days accused the lawmakers of “storming” into the facility, suggesting last week that assault charges were looming. The agency shared a video on X that it says shows Ms. McIver assaulting an ICE agent.
Representative Buddy Carter, a Republican from Georgia, introduced a resolution seeking to strip the lawmakers of their committee assignments in the House of Representatives this week. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, called for Ms. McIver to be expelled from Congress.
For weeks, Democratic officials in New Jersey have protested the opening of Delaney Hall, which is expected to significantly expand the federal government’s detention capacity as it ramps up immigration arrests across the country.
Luis Ferré-Sadurní is a Times reporter covering immigration, focused on the influx of migrants arriving in the New York region.
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