Trump official says NJ Democrats could face charges

The Trump administration suggested Saturday that New Jersey Democratic lawmakers involved in a clash a day earlier with authorities at a federal immigration detention center that led to the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also could face criminal charges.

“There will likely be more arrests coming,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN in an interview on Saturday.

“We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting these ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer,” McLaughlin said.

She later tweeted a video of the chaotic incident outside the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark.

“We will not tolerate assault against our ICE law enforcement agents. By members of Congress or anyone else,” McLauglin wrote in the post on X.

Alina Habba, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, in an interview on Fox News on Saturday, said, “I’m not going to get into the weeds about other things that may or may not be coming.”

The three lawmakers at the scene — Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, and LaMonica McIver — sharply dispute DHS’s characterization of the incident.

Menendez accused the Trump administration of spreading “lies and misinformation.”

“As Members of Congress, we have a legal right to conduct oversight at any DHS facility without prior notice, as we have already done twice this year,” Menendez said in a statement Friday.

“This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and I am shocked and disturbed that something like this happened in our community,” he added.

Watson Coleman wrote in a post on X on Saturday that “the notion that I or any of my colleagues ‘body slammed’ armed federal officers is absurd.”

“DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line,” she said.

But McLaughlin accused the Democrats of a “bizarre political stunt.”

“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities,” McLaughlin said on Friday.

She said it was “an evolving situation,” keeping the door open to further action.

Video shows an altercation between the lawmakers and apparent protesters with law enforcement by a security gate at the detention center.

Coleman said on X that the scuffle occurred after the lawmakers entered the facility.

“We entered the facility, came BACK OUT to speak to the Mayor, and then ICE agents began shoving us,” she said.

Axios first reported that DHS was considering additional arrests. CNBC confirmed the plans.

Baraka, who is running for governor of New Jersey, was released without bond Friday evening. He was charged in Newark federal court with one count of trespassing.

Habba, the interim New Jersey U.S. Attorney, accused Baraka of committing “trespass and [ignoring] multiple warnings” from DHS officials “to remove himself from the ICE detention center.”