DHS Says House Democrats and Protesters ‘Stormed’ ICE Detention Center

The crowd broke into a New Jersey immigration facility, said the Department of Homeland Security. The Democrats said they were exercising oversight authority.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) speaks with an officer demanding she be let into an ICE detention facility in Newark, N.J., on May 9, 2025. Angelina Katsanis/AP Photo

A confrontation erupted Friday at a New Jersey detention center after three Democratic members of Congress and a group of protesters entered the federal immigration facility without authorization, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), accusing the lawmakers of storming the gate and endangering public safety.

In a May 9 statement, DHS officials alleged that two Democratic members of Congress—Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-N.J.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.)—joined a group of activists in breaching the outer security gate of the Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey. Watson Coleman later released a statement saying a third lawmaker was also present.