Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark was arrested Friday outside a detention center in the city that the federal government was using as part of its campaign to deport undocumented immigrants.
Alina Habba, a lawyer for President Trump whom he named as New Jersey’s interim U.S. attorney, announced the arrest in a social media post.
After his arrest, Mr. Baraka, 55, was taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, his aides said.
Mr. Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center,” Ms. Habba wrote. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Baraka led a predawn protest outside a detention facility, Delaney Hall, which is expected to hold up to 1,000 migrants a day. For weeks, Newark officials had been arguing in federal court that the center’s owner, GEO Group, was in violation of city laws because it had failed to obtain required permits or a valid certificate of occupancy.
Three Democratic congressional representatives from New Jersey had also attempted to visit the facility on Friday. In a social media post, one of them, Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, wrote that the facility had opened without permission from the city.
“We’ve heard stories of what it’s like in other ICE prisons,” she wrote. “We’re exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves.” Representatives Robert Menendez Jr. and LaMonica McIver were also present.
Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, described the episode as a “bizarre political stunt” in a social media post. She said Ms. Watson Coleman and Mr. Menendez, along with “multiple protesters,” had “holed up in a guard shack.”
“This illegal breaking and entering of a detention facility puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and the detainees at risk,” Ms. McLaughlin said. “Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
