Mayor Ras Baraka von Newark speaks to the press near ice agents on May 7, 2025 in a demonstration in front of an Immetter Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty pictures
The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested by the federal authorities on Friday because he had allegedly entered into a US immigration and customs authority in his city.
Baraka was led in handcuffs for some time after demanding a security goal in the ICE facility in Delaney Hall, in which a group of demonstrators and several members of the state's congress were gathered.
The Democrat government had filed a lawsuit at the end of March to block the opening of the detention center, and argued that its operators had not obtained the correct permits and violated the city code.
The preliminary US lawyer of New Jersey Alina Habba said on Friday that Baraka had “violation and ignored several warnings” by officials from the homeland protection authority who asked him to leave the facility.
“He willingly decided to ignore the law. It will not be in this state. He was taken into custody,” Habba, former defender of President Donald Trump, wrote about X.
But Rep. Lamonica Mciver, Dn.J., who experienced the arrest, said that Baraka “did nothing wrong”.
Baraka, who runs for the governor of New Jersey, was released on Friday evening without a bond after appearing in front of a federal judge on video conference. He was charged with a single offense.
The mayor is scheduled to appear next Thursday in front of the Newark Federal District Court because of a preliminary hearing.
Baraka said MSNBC during an interview with Jen Psaki. “
“We were primarily allowed on the property,” said Baraka.
“You know, nothing is long, long, long.
“You obviously targeted me,” said Baraka. “I wasn't the only one out there. They came to me directly and tried to arrest me.”
Mayor Ras Baraka von Newark in handcuffs outside the detention center of the Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, on May 9, 2025.
Kind approval: Office of the Newark Mayor
After the incident, McIver said in comments against reporters that Baraka went into the goal in Delaney Hall and told the officials that “he was waiting for us to get out because we were going to go supervisory.” At that time, two other US house democrats from New Jersey, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, were also in the facility.
“They asked him to go. He went out of the goal,” said Mciver.
ICE officers “then came out to have a Huddle” and decided that Baraka should still be arrested because he was inside, “she said.
They then arrested the mayor, “who had already stopped their property behind the goal,” said the legislator.
“What we see here is loathful and we should all be angry.”
A video published by News12NJ reporter Amanda Lee on X shows a physical argument between law enforcement officers and obvious demonstrators by a security goal in the facility.
A spokesman for Watson Coleman announced NBC News that the three house members were accompanied by “after a time of explaining the law on site in” after Delaney Hall “.”
Legislators said they were there in order to commission the facility before the light of reporting on other ice centers, which have become political lightning points in the middle of Trump's aggressive deportation efforts.
The spokeswoman for the home protection, Tricia McLaughlin, described the incident “a bizarre political stunt” from a group of demonstrators to which elected civil servants belonged to NBC.
The group “stormed the gate and broke into the detention center” when a bus load from prisoners entered a security goal, said McLaughlin.
The demonstrators “have hidden in a waking hut, the first security control point,” she said.
“If these members had requested a tour, we would have made a tour of the facility easier. This is a developing situation,” she added.
Watson Coleman rejected this characterization.
“In contrast to a press release published by DHS, we do not have the internment camp” storm “,” said Watson Coleman.
She called the DHS spokeswoman “unknown with the facts” and found that McLaughhlin's explanation incorrectly claimed that there were only two house members in the facility.
Baraka's arrest was quickly convicted by democratic politicians and advocacy groups.
The governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, said that he was “outraged” and demanded Baraka's immediate publication.
Murad Awawdeh, President of the New York Immigration Coalition, described the arrest as “ruthless and irresponsible” reaction to the supervision of the elected officers.
“We are calling for the immediate release of Mayor Baraka and thus those who are responsible for making this decision to be held accountable,” said Awawdeh.
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