The Justice Department announced an assault charge Monday against Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat who was involved in a chaotic confrontation with officials outside a federal immigration facility earlier this month.
The criminal charge follows a May 9 visit by McIver, along with her colleagues Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman, to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that unfolded in a tussle and resulted in the arrest of the city’s Democratic mayor.
New Jersey interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced the charge against McIver on X, escalating a confrontation between the political branches, while also agreeing to drop the pending trespass charge against Mayor Ras Baraka.
“I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined,” Habba said in a statement.
The charge is an extraordinary stress-test for the separation of powers at a time in which President Donald Trump is seeking to maximize executive branch dominance. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries last week warned against federal law enforcement targeting the Democratic members and called arrests a “red line.”
The formal charging documents were not immediately made public, but Habba cited a provision of federal law that makes it a crime to engage in an assault on a federal officer. It’s a felony when the assault involves “physical contact with the victim.” McIver is being charged “for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement,” according to Habba.
The three lawmakers last Friday attempted to inspect Delaney Hall — the Trump administration’s newest immigrant detention facility — for oversight, as members of Congress are allowed to do by law. Charges have not been announced for Menendez nor Watson Coleman.
“The charges against me are purely political — they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” McIver said in a statement. “This administration will never stop me from working for the people in our district and standing up for what is right. I am thankful for the outpouring of support I have received and I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”
Paul Fishman, a lawyer for McIver who served as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, called the decision to charge McIver “spectacularly inappropriate.”
“As a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees. Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos,” he said in a statement. “This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICE’s behavior to Congresswoman McIver. In the courtroom, facts — not headlines — will matter.”
The Justice Department’s senior leadership made clear Monday evening that they endorse the highly unusual decision to charge a sitting member of Congress with assaulting a police officer.
“I echo what [Habba] has made clear: assaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X. “This Administration will always protect those who work tirelessly to keep America safe.”
Democrats have asserted that Delaney Hall does not have the proper permits to open, which Department of Homeland Security officials have refuted. Federal law allows members of Congress conducting oversight to access “any facility operated by or for the DHS used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”
In addition, lawmakers are protected by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause from criminal process for actions taken in the course of their official duties, a provision intended to protect legislators from intimidation by the executive branch. Courts for years have interpreted that protection broadly to include any conduct “integral” to the legislative process, including to conduct oversight.
As it has in previous criminal cases against lawmakers, the Justice Department is sure to argue that their alleged actions against immigration officials exceeded the bounds of their conduct as lawmakers. Prosecutors are making a similar case against a Wisconsin judge, who is now facing charges for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant escape arrest by helping him flee her courtroom.
Authorities set off a scrum on May 9 at Delaney Hall when they moved to arrest Baraka, the head of New Jersey’s largest city and a Democratic candidate for governor. Watson Coleman and McIver moved to shield him. The tussle that followed prompted the members to accuse the authorities of roughing them up, while the Trump administration suggested it was the other way around.
The day after the incident, Fox News posted a video it said had been provided by DHS to show McIver was “shoving/elbowing her way past a DHS agent.” Around the same time, a federal law enforcement officer shoved McIver as she was trying to reenter the facility, according to both McIver, Menendez and video taken at the time by NJ Spotlight News.
A DHS spokesperson alleged one of the members had “body slammed” an ICE officer, something that a POLITICO reporter on the scene did not witness. And during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last week, chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) chastised the “congresswoman who threw a punch at a police officer.”
Baraka was charged with misdemeanor trespassing. He appeared in federal court last week, though Habba on Monday said that his charge was dropped “for the sake of moving forward.” Habba also said that she invited Baraka to tour Delaney Hall — and would personally accompany him — because “the government has nothing to hide at this facility.”
A spokesperson for Baraka did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the aftermath of the incident, DHS said that more arrests were “on the table.” Republicans have raised the possibility of removing the three Democrats from their committees or censuring them, though Speaker Mike Johnson last week acknowledged that expulsion is unlikely given the slim margins in Congress.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said last week on Fox News that the three committed “felonies” and “don’t deserve to be in the House.”
Menendez and Watson Coleman did not immediately respond to a request for comment but have previously said they did nothing wrong. The day of the incident, Menendez said that “all of us were touched” by federal authorities and said McIver had been shoved in what he called an “assault.”
The House Judiciary Committee’s oversight subcommittee is planning to “launch a full investigation into these dangerous attacks on ICE” with a hearing on Tuesday, according to Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), who is chair of the subcommittee.
Members of Congress who have faced criminal charges in recent years have typically been accused of white-collar crimes. Menendez’s father, former Sen. Bob Menendez, was sentenced earlier this year for bribery and acting as an agent of a foreign government. Former Rep. George Santos was recently sentenced for identity theft and fraud. Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) faced charges — ultimately dismissed by the new Trump administration — of lying to the FBI. Other lawmakers have faced charges for campaign finance crimes or insider trading.
Monday’s charge comes in the middle of an intensifying clash between congressional Democrats and the administration over Trump’s aggressive mass deportation policies, many of which have faced legal challenges.
For example, Democrats traveled to El Salvador earlier this year to push back against the administration’s summary deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in violation of a court order. They’ve also raised alarm over the administration’s targeting of pro-Palestine student activists and efforts to invoke war powers to speed deportations of alleged gang members.
But Republicans have used these efforts — including the recent Delaney Hall visit — to accuse the Democrats of supporting “violent criminals.”
“I hope that those members of Congress will so passionately protest on behalf of the American victims that they were elected to represent, and not just violent criminals who are in this country illegally,” Noem said during a recent Homeland Security Committee hearing.
