DOJ Accuses NJ Rep. LaMonica McIver of Assaulting Federal Agents Outside ICE Facility

Rep. LaMonica McIver alleged that the Department of Justice had pushed her to admit to ‘doing something’ she didn’t do.

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) exits the grounds at Delancey Hall ICE detention prison in Newark, N.J., on May 9, 2025. Angelina Katsanis /AP Photo

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a criminal complaint against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), accusing her of assaulting two federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey earlier this month.

In a May 19 complaint, prosecutors charged McIver with two counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding an ICE agent and a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent during a May 9 scuffle outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey.

McIver allegedly attempted to thwart the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka by making “forcible contact” with law enforcement officers after they ordered him to leave the facility’s secure area as he was not part of the congressional delegation.

According to the complaint, McIver allegedly “slammed her forearm” into an HSI special agent and tried to restrain him by “forcibly grabbing” him. She was also accused of pushing an ICE agent and using “each of her forearms to forcibly strike” him during the incident.

U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said on May 19 that while Baraka had been detained and charged with the misdemeanor of trespassing following the scuffle, she has decided to dismiss the charge against him “for the sake of moving forward” and will personally accompany the mayor to inspect the facility firsthand.

Habba stated that McIver’s conduct “cannot be overlooked” by the state’s chief federal law authority, adding that she had made efforts to resolve the matter without filing criminal charges but that McIver declined “every opportunity to come to a resolution.”

McIver has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the charges brought against her as “purely political.” In a May 20 interview with CNN, McIver said that the “entire situation was escalated by ICE.”

When asked about Habba’s initial offer to reach a resolution, McIver said that Habba and the DOJ had wanted her to “admit to doing something“ that she ”did not do,” which she refused.

“I came there to do my job and conduct an oversight visit, and they wanted me to say something differently, and I’m not doing that. I’m not going to roll over and stop doing my job because they don’t want me to, or they want to neglect the fact that we needed to be in there to see what was going on in the detention center,” she said.

McIver said that she remains open to discussions with the DOJ, adding that her attorneys are in contact with the federal courts in New Jersey following Habba’s announcement to file criminal charges.

Habba’s office did not return a request for comment at the time of publication.

Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed facility along an industrial stretch of Newark Bay, according to the GEO Group, which runs the facility.

The Trump administration opened Delaney Hall as a detention facility for illegal immigrants on May 1 as part of its broader crackdown on illegal immigration nationwide. The move has triggered protests by illegal immigrant advocates and some Democratic politicians in recent weeks, including Baraka, a gubernatorial candidate.