DHS Says Arrests ‘On the Table’ for Lawmakers After ICE Detention Center Incident

The lawmakers deny wrongdoing after Homeland Security accused them of forcing their way past an ICE facility gate and ‘body slamming a female ICE officer.’

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) (C) demands the release of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after his arrest while protesting outside an ICE detention prison, in Newark, N.J., on May 9, 2025. Angelina Katsanis/AP Photo

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on May 10 that Democratic lawmakers involved in a confrontation at a federal immigration facility in New Jersey could face arrest, citing body camera footage that allegedly shows them physically assaulting federal agents.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN in a May 10 interview that the department was reviewing evidence that included video of elected officials attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during the May 9 incident outside Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark—raising the prospect of federal charges against the lawmakers.

“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,” McLaughlin told CNN’s Victor Blackwell. “We will be showing that to viewers very shortly.”

Asked whether arrests were being considered, McLaughlin replied, “This is an ongoing investigation and that is definitely on the table.”

The comments followed a chaotic standoff at the facility on May 9, when Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez Jr., and LaMonica McIver, all representing New Jersey, arrived for what they described as a lawful oversight visit. They were joined by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested during the encounter.

According to DHS, the group forced its way through the first security checkpoint and occupied a guard shack as a bus carrying detainees entered. In a May 9 statement, DHS alleged that two of the lawmakers—Watson Coleman and Menendez—“stormed” the gate alongside activists, posing a safety risk to federal officers and detainees.

“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” McLaughlin said in the statement. “Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”

DHS said some detainees housed at Delaney Hall are suspected of serious crimes, including murder and terrorism. The 1,000-bed facility, operated under a $1 billion, 15-year federal contract with private prison firm GEO Group, began accepting new arrivals on May 1 as part of the Trump administration’s expansion of immigration detention capacity.

The lawmakers rejected the DHS version of events.

“The notion that I or any of my colleagues ‘body slammed’ armed federal officers is absurd,” Watson Coleman said in a statement. “DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line. They have to resort to lies because their conduct is indefensible on the merits.”

Ned Cooper, a spokesperson for Watson Coleman, told media outlets that body cam footage shared with the lawmakers shows agents putting hands on the members of Congress and arresting Baraka—evidence that Cooper says contradicts DHS’s account.

Menendez issued a similar denial: “Despite the Admin’s attempts to spin this, they know we had every right to be there and enter the facility.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) backed the lawmakers and criticized what he described as intimidation tactics by the Trump administration.

“Members of Congress have a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check on the out-of-control policies of the executive branch,” Jeffries said in a statement. “We will never bend the knee.”

As of publication, the lawmakers have not been charged. In response to an inquiry about the status of the investigation, DHS referred The Epoch Times to the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baraka, a Democrat who is running to succeed term-limited New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, was charged with one count of trespassing and released without bond.