Newark Mayor Arrested for ICE ‘Trespassing’
Whose jurisdiction is it anyway? If you ask Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility operated by the private prison company GEO Group may have been violating city laws, having failed to obtain required permits and a certificate of occupancy. Baraka showed up with city inspectors this past Tuesday, returning the next day too.
If you ask Trump administration officials, lawmakers were “assaulting” ICE officers, even “body slamming a female ICE officer,” according to Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
Here’s some very unclear footage of a scrum outside the facility:
A mob (including 3 members of Congress) assaulting our ICE agents as they try to break into an ICE detention facility. pic.twitter.com/UflU9QpAZU
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) May 9, 2025
“We want them to follow our rules, follow our laws,” Baraka (who is running for governor, trying to carve out a left-wing lane) told The New York Times on Tuesday. The facility, he added, had also barred city fire and health inspectors on Monday. So Baraka and three U.S. representatives showed up, along with immigration rights protesters, trying to pressure ICE and the GEO Group into allowing inspections to happen.
The facility, Delaney Hall, is right next to Newark Liberty International Airport, and has variously served as a prison, migrant detention facility, and halfway house.
Baraka was arrested on Friday, and McLaughlin says arresting more lawmakers “is definitely on the table.”
“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody,” declared Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in a statement. “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
It’s possible that Baraka is playing a political game, trying to curry favor with voters who despise the Trump administration’s agenda. Indeed, I’m open to the idea that it’s political stunts all the way down. But it would be good to have greater transparency about what goes on at federal migrant detention facilities. You can believe the Trump adm
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