New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver is facing a felony charge of assaulting a federal officer for allegedly pushing a pair of unnamed Homeland Security agents during a scuffle that broke out earlier this month as three House members were trying to visit an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, a court filing released Tuesday shows.
The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark alleges McIver “slammed her forearm” into one agent and “forcibly” grabbed him. The Democratic congressmember is also accused of using “each of her forearms to forcibly strike” another officer, according to the complaint, which includes multiple photos from video cameras worn by officers, as well as others mounted outside the facility.
The complaint was presented to U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacey Adams on Monday evening, shortly before New Jersey’s interim U.S. Attorney, Alina Habba, announced the charge on X, escalating a confrontation between the political branches. Habba also agreed to drop the pending trespass charge against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who is also running for governor.
The charge against McIver carries a maximum statutory punishment of eight years in prison, although defendants are typically sentenced in accordance with federal guidelines that usually result in sentences well below the maximum.
Under federal court rules, prosecutors will have 30 days to get a grand jury to obtain an indictment of McIver.
The court filing was released hours before a House subcommittee planned to hold a hearing examining the “threats to ICE operations.” The panel is led by fellow New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican. He referred to the incident in Newark, saying that “we’re going to go into … the actual scuffle itself.”
The charge follows a May 9 visit by McIver, along with her colleagues Reps. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), to a newly opened Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that unfolded in a tussle and resulted in the arrest of Baraka.
McIver, who has maintained her innocence and denounced the charges as political, is likely to be summoned to appear before a magistrate judge in federal court in the coming days to be formally advised of the charges.
The charging document gives a fresh, written account of the day’s events from Department of Homeland Security special agent Robert Tansey.
Tansey gave a new account about how Baraka was able to enter a gated area at the detention facility. Baraka said he was invited in. Tansley said the mayor was able to enter “because the guard was under the impression that the Mayor was part of the Congressional delegation.”
Baraka was eventually asked to leave the gated area and told he would be arrested.
At the time, POLITICO witnessed McIver and Watson Coleman appearing to mediate a negotiation between an agent and Baraka inside the gated area. According to Tansey, McIver and the other members of Congress “surrounded the Mayor and prevented [authorities] from handcuffing him and taking him into custody.”
Baraka eventually left the gated area. The three members of Congress who were still inside the gate headed back toward the facility.
“We will be your eyes and your ears and we will report to you, mayor,” Watson Coleman told Baraka, at a point where the situation seemed to have been defused.
Moments later, Menendez came back across the parking lot to warn Baraka that he could still be arrested. Menendez would later say that he’d witnessed an agent inside the fenced area talking on the phone with someone who told the agent to arrest Baraka. McIver gave a similar account.
Authorities approached Baraka to arrest him, setting off a scrum. Tansey said McIver “hurried outside towards the agents and attempted to thwart the arrest as others yelled ‘circle the mayor.’”
Tansey said McIver and others circled Baraka in a “human shield” to prevent the arrest. He said her attempts to “thwart the arrest” included allegedly slamming her forearm into and grabbing one agent and using her forearms to forcibly strike another.
Menendez said in a Monday night statement that, having witnessed everything firsthand, “I strongly believe that the administration should be apologizing to Rep. McIver, not arresting her on unprecedented, politicized charges.” 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.”
McIver told reporters Tuesday morning that she is “looking forward to my day in court.” In a CNN interview on Tuesday, prior to the charging document becoming public, McIver called the Trump administration’s actions “political intimidation.” In response to a question about if she had attempted to negotiate a plea deal, McIver said she is “open to having conversations” but won’t “roll over and stop doing my job.”
“The Justice Department and Alina Habba wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do, and I was not going to do that,” McIver said.
Madison Fernandez contributed to this report.
