UPDATE: ICE releases N.J. mayor after dramatic arrest at immigration detention facility protest
ICE officers arrested the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city and a current gubernatorial candidate Friday afternoon in a violent struggle just outside the gates of a privately operated immigrant detention facility in Newark that he had opposed.
About 2:40 p.m., ICE officers in combat fatigues forcibly arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention facility as a crowd of city officials and immigrant rights advocates tried to encircle him to prevent his arrest.
After a struggle, ICE agents physically dragged Baraka through the gate and placed him in handcuffs before leading him toward the entrance to a building at the facility.
ICE officers arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, shown handcuffed at center, Friday afternoon in a violent struggle just outside the gates of a privately operated immigrant detention facility that he had opposed in the city. Baraka is also a running for governor of New Jersey in the Democratic primary.Photo provided by U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
As agents tried to handcuff Baraka, he could be heard, calmly, saying, “My hands are right there. My hands are right there.”
It was unclear why he was arrested. An ICE spokesperson declined to comment.
Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said Baraka was trespassing and “ignored multiple warnings” from Homeland Security Investigations to leave the property.
“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law,” Habba, whom President Donald Trump appointed as the state’s interim top federal prosecutor, said on X. “That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Gov. Phil Murphy called the arrest “unjust” and demanded Baraka’s immediate release by federal law enforcement.
- READ MORE: ‘It‘s absurd.’ Politicians protest arrest of N.J. mayor outside immigrant detention center
Baraka, who’s running for governor as a Democrat in the state’s June primary, was outside the gates of Delaney Hall with three Democratic members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation — U.S. Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman — who had come to inspect the facility.
The representatives had been allowed into a building at the facility. However, Baraka was allowed to enter the gates to the facility but wasn’t allowed into the building with the other elected representatives.
When the representatives left the building and walked toward the gate opening, where Baraka was standing, Baraka was told he had to go outside the gate. Then, an aide to one of the congresspeople informed Baraka that ICE had talked of arresting him.
Moments later, that is what happened. The congressional aide yelled to a crowd of about 40 protesters to surround the mayor to try and prevent his arrest. And they did.
Pushing and pulling ensued with congresspeople in the middle. Coleman, a short, elderly woman, found herself in the middle of it all.
The city’s top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Kenyatta Stewart, was by the mayor’s side during much of the incident. But Stewart, who was not arrested, said he did not know why the mayor was taken into custody.
Advocates had already been pressed against the front gate, yelling, “ICE out of Jersey!”
Before the mayor’s arrest, protesters and elected officials told an unidentified ICE supervisor he should treat the mayor with respect.
Amiri Baraka Jr., the mayor’s brother and chief of staff, shook his head in disbelief at the arrest, stating, “It doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Word spread among the crowd that the mayor was moved from Delaney Hall to U.S. Custom Services at 620 Frelinghuysen Ave. in another section of Newark, where the three members of Congress and a large crowd of supporters went.
The crowd swelled to more than 200.
“What we need at this moment, in this instance, at a minimum, is a bail hearing to get the mayor out so that he doesn’t have to spend the weekend here,” Coleman said.
Baraka and other city officials went to Delaney Hall to serve summonses on its private owner-operator, the GEO Group of Boca Ratón, Florida.
The summonses assert that GEO has refused to grant fire and code officials access to Delaney Hall and has placed a padlock on the gate, violating state law.
City officials had tried to serve the summonses on the GEO Group on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, when a company representative refused to accept them each time, forcing city officials to leave them on the gate, a retractable chain link fence topped with razor wire.
Baraka was at the gate on Tuesday and Wednesday seeking access to the facility, but was also turned away.
The GEO Group’s unarmed civilian security guards were joined at the gate by the armed ICE officers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Immigrant rights groups have staged daily protests outside the facility.
In a lawsuit against the GEO Group, the city has asserted that the company must obtain a new certificate of occupancy, or CO, for Delaney Hall’s reopening as an immigrant detention center.
The GEO Group has insisted that a CO previously issued by the city remains valid, an assertion backed by McLaughlin on Thursday, when she also dismissed the city’s arguments that the contractor had endangered Delaney Hall workers and detainees.
Stories by Steve Strunsky
Nobody knows Jersey better than N.J.com. Sign up to get breaking news alerts straight to your inbox.
Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com