Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Sunday went after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) over recent events at an ICE detention center in Newark, N.J.
“There were so many instances where this could’ve all been deescalated, but it was squarely in HSI, ICE’s court, they chose not to,” Menendez told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” “They made this a violent scene that we were unfortunately all a part of.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D), Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) and Menendez visited the ICE detention center on Friday and attempted to get access to the facility. However, Baraka was arrested for trespassing amid the visit, sparking widespread outrage.
“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody,” Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said in a post on the social platform X Friday.
Following the visit, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the arrest of the three New Jersey House members was “definitely on the table.”
“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,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Friday.
In his Sunday appearance on CNN, Menendez said that there were “over 20 armed ICE, HSI officers.”
“They were heavily armed … their faces were covered, and they were wearing no identification,” he added. “So this is who they chose to have come engage with the mayor of Newark and three elected members of the House of Representatives.”
The Hill has reached out to ICE and DHS for comment.
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