Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem escalated a feud with Democratic lawmakers who visited an ICE facility in Newark, accusing them of committing “felonies” in a skirmish outside the facility.
Three Democratic representatives, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Robert Menendez and LaMonica McIver, had gotten into a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials outside the recently reopened Delaney Hall Detention Center as officials arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on suspicion of trespassing.
“We had members of Congress assaulting law enforcement officers,” Noem told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday. “This wasn’t oversight, this was committing felonies. This was going out and attacking people who stand up for the rule of law.”
Representatives “punched” and “body-slammed” the ICE agents, she added.
Trump administration officials had previously accused the lawmakers of “storming” the detention facility and said more arrests could be forthcoming.
The comments sparked outrage among Democrats and even concerns from some Republicans, who acknowledged that members of Congress are allowed to visit detention facilities by law to conduct federal oversight.
Watson Coleman told CNN that guards had actually escorted her and her colleagues into the ICE facility.
As they were leaving, they heard ICE officers were planning to arrest Baraka, who had been outside the facility for about an hour with a group of protesters.
Watson Coleman said the three representatives then tried to shield Baraka—who says he was there to hold a press conference and was never asked by officials to leave—from arrest, leading to a confrontation with ICE agents.
She called accusations that the members of Congress had body-slammed the agents “ridiculous.”
“They’re 200 pounds, they’ve got about 35 pounds worth of stuff about them, including a gun on their arms,” Watson Coleman told CNN. “We did not in any way, shape or form disrespect the physicality of any of those ICE agents.”
Video footage by NJ Spotlight News shows the lawmakers in the middle of a crowd being jostled and shoved by masked ICE agents.
DHS, however, has argued that bodycam footage shows McIver “ASSAULTING” an ICE agent. McIver said in a statement it was the ICE agents who “roughed up” members of Congress.
The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS for comment.
During her Fox interview, Noem didn’t name any names, but she repeated the claim that ICE officials had been “assaulted.”
Whether or not more arrests will be made is up to the Department of Justice, she said.
“It’s astounding to me that someone would even vote for someone to put them in a place of leadership when they perpetuate something as hypocritical and criminal as what these individuals did,” she said.
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