Newark mayor detained for storming ICE facility sues Alina Habba for his arrest

One of the New Jersey Democrats arrested after storming an ICE facility is firing back with legal action of his own.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has slapped interim US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba with a lawsuit, claiming he was falsely arrested. The suit also accuses her of malicious prosecution and defamation, saying he has only pursued charges against him in the interest of advancing her own political career.

Baraka is currently running for governor of New Jersey.

While he had originally been charged with trespass, Habba announced that her office would be dropping all charges against the mayor less than two weeks later. Critics were angered by the sudden change, and were made even more irate by the fact that no real reason was given for doing so.

Baraka is asking for “compensatory damages for pain, suffering, stress, humiliation,” though the amount he is pursuing is unspecified. He also insists that the lawsuit in not retaliatory, but instead his way of holding someone “responsible for what happened.”

“Ultimately, I think this is about them taking accountability for what has happened to me,” he said at a presser. “Somebody should be responsible for what happened. To handcuff me, to drag me away, to take my fingerprints and mugshots for a misdemeanor, it’s egregious and malicious.”

“The reality is I didn’t do anything. I went down there for a press conference. I was invited to the gate, people approached me and were very loud and abusive to me,” he continued.

X users weighed in on the legal back and forth between the mayor and Habba:

Didn’t they let him go? So he wasn’t prosecuted. And it wasn’t a false arrest. He was in the wrong and he knows it!

— Lorrie Ann (@LorrieAnn25) June 3, 2025

Should have never given the guy a break

— JASON (@JASONteel12) June 3, 2025

Hmm, it’s on video. He should have been arrested. He was trying to be a douche. He was very sucessful

— #TERMLIMITSFORCONGRESS (@513dividends) June 3, 2025

He wants to play lawfare with the Feds. Let’s do it.

— Leif Von Eric Kat (@Liefvonerickat) June 3, 2025

Lawful arrest. He has no case. He is just gaslighting his constituents.

— Anyone’s Two Cents (@anyones2cents) June 4, 2025

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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