DOJ charges New Jersey congresswoman with assault over immigration facility tussle

The Justice Department has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers outside an immigration detention facility last week.

The charges were announced on social media by the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, who previously served as a personal attorney for President Trump.

According to court papers filed on Tuesday, McIver faces two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and a Homeland Security Investigations special agent during a confrontation outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark.

Democrats have denounced the charges as politically motivated and an effort by the Trump administration and the Justice Department to intimidate members of Congress and chill oversight.

Habba said she tried to address the matter with McIver and resolve it without bringing charges, but that the congresswoman declined.

“No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise,” Habba said. “It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.”

McIver denounced the charges against her, calling the case “purely political.”

“They mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” she said in a statement. “I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”

Delaney Hall is the first new detention center to reopen during Trump’s second term, after closing in 2017, as the Trump administration seeks more detention space for arrested migrants. Several local officials protested its official reopening earlier this month.

McIver said she and her colleagues were at the facility to conduct lawful oversight of the treatment of detainees there. The visit should have been short and peaceful, she said, but instead turned into an unnecessary confrontation when ICE agents chose to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.

Baraka had been facing a misdemeanor trespassing charge, but Habba said in her statement that she has dropped the case against him.

The Justice Department’s decision to bring charges against McIver received immediate pushback from congressional Democrats and New Jersey state officials.

The top Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, and his leadership team called the charges “extreme” and “morally bankrupt,” and said they lack any legal or factual basis.

“We are lawfully permitted to show up at any federal facility unannounced to conduct an inspection on behalf of the American people,” they said in a statement. “By visiting the detention center in Newark, Rep. McIver and two other Members of Congress were upholding their oath of office. They didn’t assault anyone, but were themselves aggressively mistreated by illegally masked individuals.”