Trump DOJ Charges Congresswoman After She Was Assaulted by ICE Agents During Oversight Visit
20 MAY 2025
House Democratic Leadership Called The Charges “Extreme, Morally Bankrupt And [Lacking] Any Basis In Law Or Fact.”
Washington, D.C. – In another stunning escalation by the Trump administration, the Department of Justice has charged Representative LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) with assaulting federal agents during a May 9 oversight visit to Delaney Hall, a privately operated immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. McIver joined fellow lawmakers Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) and Rob Menendez (NJ-8) and local leaders, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, to investigate the GEO Group-run facility’s role in the administration’s mass disappearance operations.
Charges against Mayor Baraka have since been dropped, but the administration is continuing to target McIver—despite video footage and eyewitness accounts indicating that she was the one subjected to physical aggression by ICE officers, not the instigator of it.
Statement from Beatriz Lopez, Co-Executive Director of the Immigration Hub:
“This isn’t law enforcement—it’s a vendetta. Representative McIver and her colleagues were fulfilling their constitutional duty to conduct oversight of a billion-dollar detention facility tied to indiscriminate arrests, family separations, and civil rights violations. The law is clear: members of Congress have the legal right to inspect federal facilities.
To single out Rep. McIver for daring to challenge this administration’s shameless power grab is not just outrageous—it is retaliatory and another chilling warning to any public official who dares to dissent. The public has a right to know what’s happening behind these walls—especially as more taxpayer dollars will soon be funneled into imprisoning more hardworking parents, essential workers, and even children. This politically motivated prosecution is authoritarianism in action.”
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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.
