Mayor of Newark arrested while protested at the ICE detention center
The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested Friday at a new Federal Immigration Detention Center with which he has been protesting and was in custody for several hours.
Baraka was released around 8 pm after being accused of transferring and ignoring warnings to abandon the facilities of Delaney Hall. When leaving a SUV with flashing emergency lights, he told the waiting followers: “The reality is this: I did not do anything wrong.”
The mayor said he could not talk about his case, citing a promise he made to the lawyers and the judge. But he expressed full support for all those who live in their community, including immigrants.
“All of us here, until the last of us, I don’t care what experience you come, what nationality, what language you speak,” said Baraka, “at some point we have to prevent these people from causing division between us.”
Baraka, a Democrat who postulates to happen to the limited governor by mandate Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration for illegal immigration.
It has been aggressively delayed against the construction and opening of the 1,000 -bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open due to construction permissions.
Linda Baraka, the mayor’s wife, accused the federal government of attacking her husband.
“They did not arrest anyone else. They did not ask anyone to leave. They wanted to give an example of the mayor,” he said, adding that he had not allowed him to see him.
Alina Habba, an interim American prosecutor in New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka invaded at the detention center, led by the private prison operator Geo Group.
Habba said Baraka had “chosen to ignore the law.”
The incident video showed that Baraka was arrested after returning to the public side of the door to the installation.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Witnesses describe a heated argument
Witnesses said the arrest occurred after Baraka tried to join three members of the New Jersey Congress, representatives Robert Menéndez, Lamonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman, trying to enter the facilities.
When federal officials blocked their entrance, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martínez, an activist of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. He continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the doors.
“There were screams and thrust,” Martínez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They launched one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka handcuff and put it in an unmarked car.”
The National Security Department said in a statement that legislators had not requested a tour of Delaney Hall, which the agency said it would have provided. The department said that when a bus carrying detainees was entering in the afternoon “a group of protesters, including two members of the United States House of Representatives, broke into the door and broke into the detention center.”
Watson Coleman spokesman Ned Cooper said the three legislators were there without prior notice because they planned to inspect it, not make a scheduled tour.
“They arrived, they explained to the guards and the officials of the installation that were there to exercise their supervision authority,” he said, added that they were allowed to enter and inspect the center at some point between 3 and 4 pm.
Later, Watson Coleman said the DHS statement incorrectly characterized the visit.
“Unlike a press statement presented by DHS, no” storm “the detention center,” he wrote. “The author of that press release was not familiar with the facts on the field that did not even have the number of representatives present correctly. We were exercising our legal supervision function as we have done at the Elizabeth detention center without incident.”
The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed a transfer and ignored multiple warnings of national security investigations to withdraw from the ice detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has voluntarily chosen to ignore the law. That will not remain in this …
– Alina Habba (@alalahabba) May 9, 2025
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The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed a transfer and ignored multiple warnings of national security investigations to withdraw from the ice detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has voluntarily chosen to ignore the law. That will not remain in this …
– Alina Habba (@alalahabba) May 9, 2025
The video shows the mayor stopped on the public side of the door
In the video of the altercation shared with News, you can listen to a federal official in a jacket with the logo of national security investigations telling Baraka that you could enter the facilities because “you are not a member of the congress.”
Baraka then left the area safe, joining the protesters on the public side of the door. The video showed him talking through the door to a man in a suit, who said: “They are talking about arresting you again.”
“I am not on their property. They can’t go out and arrest myself,” Baraka replied.
Minutes later, several ice agents, some with facial coatings, surrounded him and others on the public side. While the protesters shouted, “Shame,” Baraka was dragged back through the door with the wives.
Several civil rights defenders and immigration reform, as well as government officials, condemned Baraka’s arrest. New Jersey Attorney, Matthew J. Platkin, whose office defends a state law that prohibits the private immigration detention centers, criticized the arrest during a seemingly peaceful protest and said that there were no agencies for the application of state or local law involved.
The representative Menéndez said in a statement that, as members of Congress, they have the legal right to carry out supervision in the DHS facilities without prior notice and have already done so twice this year. But on Friday, “throughout each step of this visit, ICE tried to intimidate everyone involved and prevent our ability to perform supervision.”
The detention center
The two -story building next to a county prison previously operated as a house halfway.
In February, ICE granted a 15 -year contract to the Geo Group Inc. to direct the detention center. Geo valued the contract at $ 1 billion, in an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.
The announcement was part of President Donald Trump’s plans to drastically increase the detention beds throughout the country from a budget of approximately 41,000 beds this year.
Baraka sued Geo shortly after the agreement was announced.
GEO promoted the Delaney Hall contract during a profit call with the shareholders on Wednesday, and CEO David Donahue said that it was expected to generate more than $ 60 million a year in income. He said the installation began the admission process on May 1.
Hall said that the activation of the center and another in Michigan would increase the capacity under contract with ICE of around 20,000 beds to around 23,000.
DHS said in his statement that the installation has the appropriate permits and inspections that have been clarified.
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News Rebecca Santana writer in Washington contributed.