The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on May 10 that Democratic lawmakers involved in a confrontation at a federal immigration facility in New Jersey could face arrest, citing body camera footage that allegedly shows them physically assaulting federal agents.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN in a May 10 interview that the department was reviewing evidence that included video of elected officials attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during the May 9 incident outside Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark—raising the prospect of federal charges against the lawmakers.
“We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer,” McLaughlin told CNN’s Victor Blackwell. “We will be showing that to viewers very shortly.”
Asked whether arrests were being considered, McLaughlin replied, “This is an ongoing investigation and that is definitely on the table.”
The comments followed a chaotic standoff at the facility on May 9, when Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez Jr., and LaMonica McIver, all representing New Jersey, arrived for what they described as a lawful oversight visit. They were joined by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested during the encounter.
According to DHS, the group forced its way through the first security checkpoint and occupied a guard shack as a bus carrying detainees entered. In a May 9 statement, DHS alleged that two of the lawmakers—Watson Coleman and Menendez—”stormed” the gate alongside activists, posing a safety risk to federal officers and detainees.
“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” McLaughlin said in the statement. “Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”
DHS said some detainees housed at Delaney Hall are suspected of serious crimes, including murder and terrorism. The 1,000-bed facility, operated under a $1 billion, 15-year federal contract with private prison firm GEO Group, began accepting new arrivals on May 1 as part of the Trump administration’s expansion of immigration detention capacity.
The lawmakers rejected the DHS version of events.
“The notion that I or any of my colleagues ‘body slammed’ armed federal officers is absurd,” Watson Coleman said in a statement. “DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line. They have to resort to lies because their conduct is indefensible on the merits.”
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