BLOOMBERG (NEW YORK) -- A federal grand jury indicted a Democratic House lawmaker from Newark over her confrontation with US immigration officers outside a private detention facility that is key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans, according to a prosecutor.
US Representative LaMonica McIver was accused in a three-count indictment of forcibly impeding and interfering with law enforcement agents outside the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, Alina Habba, the interim US attorney for New Jersey, said late Tuesday in a social media post. The indictment wasn’t immediately available on the court’s electronic docket.
McIver, who was previously charged by criminal complaint, said in a post on X that “the facts of this case will prove I was just doing my job” and she will plead not guilty.
The indictment of McIver, 38, sets up a prolonged court battle with Habba, who was formerly a personal attorney for President Donald Trump. Her case has become one of several flash points in Democratic resistance to the president’s mass deportation agenda.
McIver was charged after a May 9 congressional oversight visit to Delaney Hall that erupted into a scuffle between agents and protestors seeking to halt the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. He was charged with trespassing but Habba later dropped his misdemeanor case.
GEO Group Inc. operates Delaney Hall under a 15-year US contract that the company values at more than $1 billion.
In initially charging McIver, the US said she and others surrounded Baraka to prevent him from being handcuffed, according to her criminal complaint. She “placed her arms around him” and “encircled him in a ‘human shield,’” the complaint said.
She then “slammed her forearm into the body” of one agent and “used each of her forearms to forcibly strike” another officer, according to the complaint.
“The legal process will expose this prosecution for what it truly is — political retaliation against a dedicated public servant who refuses to shy away from her oversight responsibilities,” McIver attorney Paul Fishman said Tuesday in a statement. “We are eager to challenge these allegations head-on in court and fully expect the Congresswoman’s exoneration.”
In dismissing the Baraka case, US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa excoriated prosecutors for his “hasty arrest” and a failure to conduct a “thorough, dispassionate” evaluation of the evidence.
“The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate, to carefully gather facts, and to thoughtfully consider the implications of your actions before wielding your immense power,” Espinosa told Habba’s prosecutor in court.
On June 3, Baraka, a Democrat, filed a federal lawsuit accusing Habba and a Homeland Security Investigations official in their personal capacities of false arrest and malicious prosecution. He also accused Habba of defamation.
Habba said in a social media post that joining her to fight crime would be a “far better use of time for the great citizens of New Jersey.”