Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Sunday called threats to arrest Democratic colleagues over an incident at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility “very drastic” and only appropriate if anyone actually broke the law.
In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” McCaul was asked about ICE arresting the mayor of Newark, N.J. outside a federal detention center on Friday and about new threats of arrest against three members of Congress who similarly tried to access the detention center.
“Should ICE be arresting or even threatening to arrest members of Congress?” host Ed O’Keefe asked McCaul in the interview.
“I mean, that's obviously a very drastic move. I would only do that if they were complicit with a crime,” McCaul responded. “I don't know all the facts behind this.”
McCaul noted that members of Congress have the right to access federal detention facilities, adding that he did not know if the three members of Congress — New Jersey Democrats Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver — were otherwise disrupting law enforcement.
“If they were just visiting a detention center, that's- I've done that many times. If they're disrupting law enforcement, that's another question,” McCaul said.
“So, you know, we can peacefully protest in this country, but you cannot be complicit with gang violence against our law enforcement. And I think perhaps that's what it comes down to,” he added.
After Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was arrested at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a CNN interview that more arrests could be coming.
She did not rule out arresting the three Democratic members, who ICE officials said were pushing and shoving among the people in the crowd outside the facility — a characterization the Democrats reject.
“This is an ongoing investigation and that is definitely on the table,” McLaughlin said in the CNN interview, when pressed on whether the members of Congress could be arrested.
“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, so we will be showing that to viewers very shortly,” McLaughlin said about the members.
Watson Coleman rejected these claims.
“Since DHS has been lying about this, allow me to correct the record. This scuffle, during which an ICE agent physically shoved me, occurred AFTER we had entered the Delaney Hall premises. We entered the facility, came BACK OUT to speak to the Mayor, and then ICE agents began shoving us,” Watson Coleman wrote in a Friday post on X.
“This is not how we entered the facility. We were escorted in by guards, because we have lawful oversight authority to be there,” she added.
The New Jersey representative said members of Congress have the legal right to conduct oversight at DHS facilities without prior notice and noted she’s conducted visits twice this year.
“The notion that I or any of my colleagues ‘body slammed’ armed federal officers is absurd. DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line,” Watson Coleman said in a statement.
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