DHS is not finished with New Jersey lawmakers caught on camera storming ICE facility

Democrats may soon find out that they’re not the only ones who can believe “nobody is above the law.”

Three House Democrats from New Jersey could end up in cuffs as the Department of Homeland Security says “arrests are still on the table” regarding a visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Reports indicate lawmakers LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, stomped their way into the Delaney Hall Detention Center, allegedly resulting in the assault of an ICE agent.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin spoke to Fox News about the contentious protest, assuring viewers that the investigation is still ongoing and anyone responsible for assaulting the agent will be held responsible, even if they’re an elected official.

“If it was a typical U.S. citizen, and they tried to storm into a detention facility that’s housing dangerous criminals or any person at all, they would be arrested,” she told Fox News Live on Saturday. “Just because you are a member of Congress or just because you’re a public official, does not mean you are above the law.

“If you assault a law enforcement officer, we will also make sure you answer to justice. So, I think that arrests are still on the table for this. This is an ongoing investigation.”

DHS officials are reportedly in possession of bodycam footage that they claim shows the members of Congress aggressively confronting ICE agents and even “body-slamming a female ICE officer,” wrote Axios.

The Democrats were quick to play the victim on social media:

The way we were treated at Delaney Hall is almost unbelievable. ICE shoved me, manhandled @repbonnie, and arrested @rasjbaraka.

They disrespected us and tried to stop us from conducting the oversight we’re elected to do. But we’ll never back down in our fight for what is right. pic.twitter.com/ICh9Jc3t6B

— Rep. LaMonica McIver (@RepLaMonica) May 9, 2025

“The way we were treated at Delaney Hall is almost unbelievable. ICE shoved me, manhandled [Watson Coleman], and arrested [Baraka]. They disrespected us and tried to stop us from conducting the oversight we’re elected to do. But we’ll never back down in our fight for what is right,” McIver wrote in an X post.

A press conference included even more claims from McIver, who claims she was “assaulted by multiple ICE officers while regional directors of ICE watched it happen.”

At around 1pm today, my colleagues @RepLaMonica @RepMenendez and I arrived at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark to exercise our oversight authority as Members of Congress.

Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not “storm” the detention center. The… pic.twitter.com/QzIavA1j5Z

— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) May 9, 2025

At around 1pm today, my colleagues [LaMonica], [Menendez] and I arrived at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark to exercise our oversight authority as Members of Congress,” Watson Coleman wrote in a post of her own. “Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not ‘storm’ the detention center. The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn’t even correctly count the number of Representatives present. We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident.”

“Reopening Delaney Hall won’t make us safer and it won’t create an immigration system that is fair and secure for all families,” she continued. “Private Prison companies like GEO Group create a perverse incentive to increase incarceration to increase corporate profits. It’s no accident that GEO Group was the first corporation to max out donations to Trump’s Super PAC, to the tune of $500,000 dollars. And they’re being rewarded with huge contracts to imprison immigrants like we’re seeing here at Delaney.”

“New Jerseyans don’t want more private prisons just to increase shareholder income at the expense of taxpayers. They want a fair and secure immigration system that reflects our values and respects our Constitution.”

Bill Melugin posted bodycam videos to his own X account:

NEW: DHS has provided @FoxNews ICE bodycam video from the altercation at the Delaney Hall detention facility yesterday. They say the video clearly shows @RepLaMonica (red clothing) shoving/elbowing her way past a DHS agent to get past the gate and into the property, followed… pic.twitter.com/GOAKm6U80W

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 10, 2025

Baraka’s attorney spoke out on his detainment, at the end of which he was charged with trespassing.

They did this on a charge of trespass, a municipal charge which would normally be handled by way of a ticket,” reads a statement given to Fox News. “His subsequent release by the court demonstrates that there was no reason to believe that this well-known and widely respected public official was either a flight risk or a danger to the community that he served.”

They claim their client “acted throughout with calm, restraint and dignity in a law-abiding manner,” saying his actions are protected speech under the First Amendment.

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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