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Republicans on Capitol Hill seized on Rep. LaMonica McIver’s federal indictment, using it to back the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy and villainize Democrats who rallied to her defense.
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey last week charged McIver (D-10th) with assault, stemming from her involvement in a scrum on May 9 between politicians, protesters and federal police outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention site in Newark.
In court papers, prosecutors accused McIver, a relative newcomer to Congress who is in her first full term in the House, of impeding the duties of two federal police officers within the Department of Homeland Security.
What happened at Delaney Hall
McIver was trying to physically shield Ras Baraka, the Newark mayor and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, who has maintained the facility is operating without proper approval from the city, from arrest.
McIver dismissed the charges as “purely political” and an attempt to “criminalize and deter legislative oversight.”
Under federal law and DHS policy, members of Congress are permitted to show up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, such as Delaney Hall, to inspect those sites.
Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican who controls the flow of legislation in the House of Representatives, has floated disciplinary action against McIver and two other New Jersey lawmakers — Democrats Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman — who joined her at Delaney Hall. Johnson says he may consider stripping them of their committee assignments, among other punishments.
The indictment of McIver has provided fodder for Republicans who want more funding for the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy, including money for a border wall between Mexico and the U.S., more immigration officers and more sites such as Delaney Hall.
‘We have nothing to hide’
Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, told Congress that members are welcome to visit the facilities his agency runs.
“We do acknowledge that any member of Congress does have the right to show up for an inspection of one of our facilities,” Lyons said. “We have nothing to hide.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another federal agency, has not submitted its latest budget request to Congress and is expected to run out of money in a matter of months.
The administration wants money for a minimum of 100,000 new beds for federal detention sites, Lyons said.
The sweeping bill now being pushed by Republicans that includes deep cuts to Medicaid, food aid and health care would also provide $45 billion for “adult alien detention capacity and family residential centers.” That would be a significant increase for the agency, which operates on an annual budget of about $8 billion.
That bill could pass the House as early as this week before going to the Senate, where it will likely be changed.
Van Drew: U.S. needs more detention space
At a congressional hearing last week, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) said the U.S. needs more detention sites like Delaney Hall.
“Facilities like Delaney Hall are desperately needed to help prevent dangerous criminal aliens from remaining on our streets,” Van Drew said. “Right now, ICE needs more detention space than it ever [has].”
Van Drew, who was elected to Congress as a Democrat before renouncing his former party and becoming a Republican, criticized the protest two weeks ago in Newark.
“It’s obvious what happened here,” he said. “It was about politics, pure and simple. Maybe not so pure.”
Dueling videos
At the start of the hearing, Republicans, who have sought to verbally link Democrats with criminals in ICE custody, played a video clip of McIver in the scrum.
One question was posted at the video’s end: “WHO ARE DEMOCRATS FIGHTING FOR?”
Democrats rebutted with their own video interspersed with clips that showed McIver speaking with ICE agents during her visit and clips of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The McIver clips ran with the text: “CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT.”
The footage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol ran with the text: “A CRIME.”
Baraka, whose charges were dropped Monday, according to the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, was arrested after the three members of Congress took their tour of Delaney Hall — a point Democrats made repeatedly on Tuesday.
Democrats skeptical
If the lawmakers or a particular lawmaker had broken the law, why were they not arrested during the May 9 protest, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, asked Tuesday.
“Where I’m from in Texas, I can tell you that I’m not used to having law enforcement see a crime happen right in front of their faces and then say ‘Never mind, we’ll just go about our business. In fact, why don’t you go ahead and come on in?’” Crockett said. “‘And wait a minute, while you’re here, do y’all want something to drink? We got refreshments for you.’”
Since the second Trump administration started, Democrats have criticized the president on a slew of issues, said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th).
“We’ve been complaining about how they’re freezing funds, violating the law, firing people,” Pallone said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “Now one of our colleagues is being charged with a crime for doing her job? It’s over the top.”
Pallone: Blame ICE
Pallone added: “ICE created this problem. They were there because they wanted to press charges. It’s all political theater in my opinion on the part of the Trump administration.”
Rep. Nellie Pou (D-9th) said the charges against McIver do “not make me second-guess doing an oversight visit.”
“It’s our job. We have every right to be there,” Pou said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.
The company that runs Delaney Hall is Geo Group, headquartered in Florida. Geo Group is one of two major private prison companies that operate ICE facilities nationwide. The other, CoreCivic, a Tennessee firm, operates the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey.
In February, the Trump administration awarded Geo Group a 15-year contract worth $1 billion to run Delaney Hall.
Both companies donated to Trump’s inauguration in January.
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