McIver set to be charged over Delaney Hall incident

Update at 5:00 p.m.: The Justice Department does not appear to be bringing charges against McIver today; the timing of when it will do so is unclear.

The Justice Department plans to bring charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) following a scuffle with federal immigration agents last week at Newark’s Delaney Hall detention center, three sources speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed to the New Jersey Globe.

Much is still unknown about the case against the freshman congresswoman, including the timing of when interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba will announce charges. McIver is set to be represented by Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey during the Obama administration, and Lee Cortes, the former Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.

On Friday, May 9, McIver and three other prominent New Jersey Democrats – Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) and Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) – visited Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed facility in the East Ward of Newark that began housing immigrant detainees at the beginning of this month, for an oversight visit.

Partway through the visit, Baraka was arrested by federal authorities; they claimed he was trespassing, while he maintained that he had followed their directions and left when they instructed him to. Baraka’s arrest prompted a scuffle among the three representatives, ICE agents, and a group of protesters who had gathered at Delaney Hall’s gate; both sides have claimed that the other was the aggressor in the fight, which seems to have caused no reported injuries.

Video footage shows the fight to have been a general scramble. McIver in particular forcefully attempted to protect Baraka both physically and verbally as he was led away, which may be the basis for charges against her, though claims from some Republicans that she body-slammed or punched ICE officers are more dubious based on the footage available. (Menendez and the 80-year-old Watson Coleman were also involved in the melee, but there’s less video evidence of them physically engaging with agents, perhaps explaining the Justice Department’s focus on McIver.)

The three representatives have also faced threats of potential reprisals within the U.S. House, where Republicans have floated a number of options – including censure or stripping committee assignments – as punishment for their alleged “assault” on federal agents. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Wednesday that he was considering all options on the table.

McIver’s office did not respond to a request for comment today, but the three representatives have strongly pushed back on the idea that they committed any wrongdoing ever since the Homeland Security Department first began threatening charges against them last weekend.

“We’ve reviewed the body cam footage shared by DHS which confirms what we’ve said from the beginning: ICE agents put their hands on Members of Congress and arrested the Mayor of Newark on public property,” a Watson Coleman spokesperson said on May 10. “Nobody was ‘body slammed,’ nobody ‘assaulted’ any agents, and this footage confirms that.”