DOJ says it has charged N.J. congresswoman with assaulting law enforcement at ICE facility

The Justice Department said it filed charges Monday against Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., alleging she assaulted law enforcement this month at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba made the announcement on X, where she accused the Democratic lawmaker of “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement.”

In a statement, McIver called the charges against her “purely political” and said she looks forward “to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”

“Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district. We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka,” McIver said.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche backed Habba’s statement, writing on X that “assaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated.”

Habba, in a separate statement Monday, said that her office had dropped trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka who was arrested the same day McIver and two other House Democrats were at the facility.

“After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward,” Habba said in a statement, while adding that the dismissal of the charges against Baraka, a candidate for New Jersey governor, is not the end of the matter.