New Jersey Democrat faces House censure vote and removal from key committee

The House of Representatives is preparing to vote this week on a GOP measure to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver and remove the New Jersey Democrat from the Homeland Security Committee.

McIver was indicted by a federal grand jury in June on criminal counts stemming from a visit to an immigration detention facility that resulted in a physical altercation with law enforcement. She pleaded not guilty.

That indictment listed three counts of “assaulting, resisting, and interfering” with federal officers, as McIver “forcibly impeded” officers as they attempted to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside the Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility in Newark, N.J., on May 9.

McIver says the Trump administration has “weaponized the Department of Justice.”

“At the end of the day, we went to Delaney Hall for an oversight visit because members of Congress had the right to hold these agencies accountable,” McIver said in a statement at the time of her indictment. “We did not go there to protest, we did not go there for any of that. We went there to make sure that this facility was up to par and the detainees there were getting due process.”

McIver now faces a censure resolution

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., introduced a privileged resolution in July to censure McIver and remove her from her from her assigned committee. The resolution advanced on Tuesday, House rules require a vote on the measure within two days.

“Representative McIver’s continued service on the Committee on Homeland Security, which is charged with oversight of Federal immigration enforcement and other national security matters, would represent a significant conflict of interest,” the resolution reads.

Democrats have accused the Department of Justice of charging the New Jersey Democrat for political reasons.

For her part, McIver responded to the resolution by saying: “If House Republicans think they can make me run scared, they’re wrong.”

“We were all elected to do the people’s work. I take that responsibility seriously — Clay Higgins clearly does not,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “Instead of making life any better for the people he represents, he’s seeking to punish me for doing what he and his caucus are too cowardly to do: conduct real oversight, stand up to this administration, and do our jobs.”

The House has censured 28 members in history; nearly 28% of those censures have occurred in the last four years.

The most recent member to be censured was Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he disrupted President Trump’s first joint address to Congress in his second term.