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Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) speaks during a news conference with freshmen women during the House Democrats 2025 Issues Conference at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
(Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
As McIver Pleads Not Guilty, Rights Group Sounds Alarm Over Trump 'Intimidation Campaign'
"The Trump administration is attempting to silence opposition through fear, but New Jersey will not be intimidated by authoritarianism," said the head of the ACLU of New Jersey.
Jun 25, 2025
At a hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from an incident outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark last month.
Politico reported that McIver and her attorney said they plan to challenge the charges on both legal and factual grounds.
"At the end of the day, this is all about political intimidation," McIver said to a crowd that gathered outside the courthouse.
JUST NOW: LaMonica McIver gives a powerful speech after pleading not guilty: "We will fight this. At the end of the day this is all about political intimidation. The Trump administration and his cronies have weaponized the federal government. I will not stand for it. They will… pic.twitter.com/kMeIeXqeDK
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) June 25, 2025
The executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, Amol Sinha, said in a statement on Wednesday that the prosecution of McIver is "a shameful escalation of the Trump administration's intimidation campaign against those who refuse to do its bidding."
"The Trump administration is attempting to silence opposition through fear, but New Jersey will not be intimidated by authoritarianism," Sinha also said. "We urge all members of Congress—as well as state and local elected officials—to exercise their oversight authority to provide strong checks and balances on President Trump's abuses of power that continue to undermine the fundamental freedoms at the bedrock of our democracy."
On May 9, McIver two other members of Congress were at an ICE detention facility called Delaney Hall to conduct congressional oversight when the Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joined them there. When federal agents ordered Baraka to leave and then went to arrest him, McIver and the other lawmakers moved to intervene, according to documentation of the episode and official accounts. NPR reported that the administration's narrative around the episode has shifted over time.
In June, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced that McIver had been charged with a three-count indictment for forcibly interfering with federal officers.
Following her indictment, McIver released a statement on June 10, saying that the "facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: A brazen attempt at political intimidation."
"This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump's administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do. But it won't work—I will not be intimidated," McIver said.
There have been several explosive interactions between federal agents and Democratic officials since May. On June 17, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court in lower Manhattan while escorting an individual out of immigration court. And the week prior, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was handcuffed on the ground after being forcibly removed from a news conference that was held by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.
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At a hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from an incident outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark last month.
Politico reported that McIver and her attorney said they plan to challenge the charges on both legal and factual grounds.
"At the end of the day, this is all about political intimidation," McIver said to a crowd that gathered outside the courthouse.
JUST NOW: LaMonica McIver gives a powerful speech after pleading not guilty: "We will fight this. At the end of the day this is all about political intimidation. The Trump administration and his cronies have weaponized the federal government. I will not stand for it. They will… pic.twitter.com/kMeIeXqeDK
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) June 25, 2025
The executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, Amol Sinha, said in a statement on Wednesday that the prosecution of McIver is "a shameful escalation of the Trump administration's intimidation campaign against those who refuse to do its bidding."
"The Trump administration is attempting to silence opposition through fear, but New Jersey will not be intimidated by authoritarianism," Sinha also said. "We urge all members of Congress—as well as state and local elected officials—to exercise their oversight authority to provide strong checks and balances on President Trump's abuses of power that continue to undermine the fundamental freedoms at the bedrock of our democracy."
On May 9, McIver two other members of Congress were at an ICE detention facility called Delaney Hall to conduct congressional oversight when the Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joined them there. When federal agents ordered Baraka to leave and then went to arrest him, McIver and the other lawmakers moved to intervene, according to documentation of the episode and official accounts. NPR reported that the administration's narrative around the episode has shifted over time.
In June, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced that McIver had been charged with a three-count indictment for forcibly interfering with federal officers.
Following her indictment, McIver released a statement on June 10, saying that the "facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: A brazen attempt at political intimidation."
"This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump's administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do. But it won't work—I will not be intimidated," McIver said.
There have been several explosive interactions between federal agents and Democratic officials since May. On June 17, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court in lower Manhattan while escorting an individual out of immigration court. And the week prior, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was handcuffed on the ground after being forcibly removed from a news conference that was held by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.
At a hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from an incident outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark last month.
Politico reported that McIver and her attorney said they plan to challenge the charges on both legal and factual grounds.
"At the end of the day, this is all about political intimidation," McIver said to a crowd that gathered outside the courthouse.
JUST NOW: LaMonica McIver gives a powerful speech after pleading not guilty: "We will fight this. At the end of the day this is all about political intimidation. The Trump administration and his cronies have weaponized the federal government. I will not stand for it. They will… pic.twitter.com/kMeIeXqeDK
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) June 25, 2025
The executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, Amol Sinha, said in a statement on Wednesday that the prosecution of McIver is "a shameful escalation of the Trump administration's intimidation campaign against those who refuse to do its bidding."
"The Trump administration is attempting to silence opposition through fear, but New Jersey will not be intimidated by authoritarianism," Sinha also said. "We urge all members of Congress—as well as state and local elected officials—to exercise their oversight authority to provide strong checks and balances on President Trump's abuses of power that continue to undermine the fundamental freedoms at the bedrock of our democracy."
On May 9, McIver two other members of Congress were at an ICE detention facility called Delaney Hall to conduct congressional oversight when the Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joined them there. When federal agents ordered Baraka to leave and then went to arrest him, McIver and the other lawmakers moved to intervene, according to documentation of the episode and official accounts. NPR reported that the administration's narrative around the episode has shifted over time.
In June, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced that McIver had been charged with a three-count indictment for forcibly interfering with federal officers.
Following her indictment, McIver released a statement on June 10, saying that the "facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: A brazen attempt at political intimidation."
"This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump's administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do. But it won't work—I will not be intimidated," McIver said.
There have been several explosive interactions between federal agents and Democratic officials since May. On June 17, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court in lower Manhattan while escorting an individual out of immigration court. And the week prior, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was handcuffed on the ground after being forcibly removed from a news conference that was held by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.
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LATEST NEWS
Fridays for Future Plans Global Climate Strike During COP30 in Brazil
"A just transition is not a luxury or a campaign to be used for greenwashing; it's a matter of survival and securing our future," said a movement member in the host country.
Jul 29, 2025
The Fridays for Future movement announced this week that it is planning the next Global Climate Strike for November 14, the first Friday during the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil.
The movement began in 2018, with then-teenage Greta Thunberg's solo protest at the Swedish parliament, which inspired millions of people to hold similar school strikes for climate action around the world.
The U.N. summit, COP30, is set to run from November 10-21. Brazil's website for the conference states that "the main challenges include aligning the commitments of developed and developing countries in relation to climate finance, ensuring that emission reduction targets are compatible with climate science, and dealing with the socio-economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations."
On November 14, "under the banner #JustTransitionNow, young people around the world will mobilize to demand urgent, justice-centered action to phase out fossil fuels and build a sustainable future for all," according to a Monday statement from Fridays for Future.
"Global leaders must stop listening to fossil fuel lobbyists... It's time they start listening to science, to young people, and to traditional communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis."
According to the movement, the upcoming global strike will highlight the urgent need to:
- Accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels: End the financing and expansion of coal, oil, and gas projects.
- Massively invest in renewable energy: Call for a significant increase in clean, affordable energy for all.
- Ensure a just transition for workers and communities: Safeguard livelihoods and promote social justice in the shift to a green economy.
- Advance climate justice for the Global South: Demand reparations and financial support for developing countries disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
"Global leaders must stop listening to fossil fuel lobbyists or seeking alliances with groups like OPEC+," said Daniel Holanda of Fridays for Future Brazil, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other leading oil exporters.
"It's time they start listening to science, to young people, and to traditional communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis," Holanda added. "A just transition is not a luxury or a campaign to be used for greenwashing; it's a matter of survival and securing our future."
The movement's announcement of the next strike follows last week's landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the U.N.'s primary judicial organ—that countries have a legal obligation to take cooperative action against the "urgent and existential threat" of human-caused planetary heating.
"We now have a common foundation based on the rule of law, releasing us from the limitations of individual nations' political interests that have dominated climate action," said Ralph Regenvanu, a minister in Vanuatu, which introduced the U.N. General Assembly resolution that led to the opinion. "This moment will drive stronger action and accountability to protect our planet and peoples."
Plans for the strike also come as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and congressional Republicans work to undo the limited progress that the United States has made in terms of taking accountability for being the biggest historical contributor to climate pollution.
In addition to the United States ditching the Paris agreement, again, Trump's return to power has meant the elimination of the State Department's Office of Global Change. The latter move, CNN reported Tuesday, "leaves the world's largest historical polluter with no official presence" at COP30.
Analysis Shows Big Corporations Are Using Trump Trade Chaos as 'Cover' to Jack Up Prices
"While Trump's tariffs continue to cause economic upheaval, corporations are exploiting the chaos and working families are left to foot the bill," said one analyst.
Jul 29, 2025
The effects of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs are winding their way through the American economy, and a new piece of analysis claims that corporate America is using them as "cover" to further jack up prices.
Progressive advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative issued a new report on Tuesday that uses corporate executives' own words to show how many firms are taking advantage of the tariff situation by using it as an all-purpose justification for price increases. The report found many of these executives' admissions through quarterly earnings calls in which they discussed plans to increase costs even if their inputs were not being significantly affected by the tariffs.
Among others, the report cited a statement made earlier this year by Aaron Jagdfeld, the CEO of power generation products manufacturer Generac Power Systems, who said on an earnings call that "even if we have metals that weren't impacted directly by tariffs, the indirect effect of tariffs is that it gives steel producers and the mills and other fabricators... great cover for increased pricing in some cases."
Another executive quoted in the report was Matthew Stevenson, the CEO of auto parts manufacturer Holley, who said that "in the marketplace we have seen price increases well in excess of what we put out into the market" and added that "we've seen increases as high as 30% or more on some categories from some competitors."
Thomas Robertson, the CFO of footwear company Rocky Brands, flat-out said during an earnings call that his company planned to raise prices even as Trump had backed off his most strident trade-war threats with China.
"We certainly welcome a reduction in the Chinese tariffs, but we'll be announcing a price increase here regardless of any changes of the Chinese tariffs over the next week or two to go into effect in June," he said.
While the report names and shames corporations for price increases, Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens did not absolve Trump of responsibility for the situation.
"President Trump's turbulent trade policy has created a perfect storm of market chaos, giving corporations a golden opportunity to jack up prices, pad profit margins, and fleece Americans simply because they can," said Owens. "While Trump's tariffs continue to cause economic upheaval, corporations are exploiting the chaos and working families are left to foot the bill."
The Groundwork Collaborative report was released on the same day that consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble announced that it would be raising prices on roughly one-quarter of its products due to Trump's tariffs. As reported by CNBC, the company said during its quarterly earnings call that it expects "mid-single-digit price increases" on a wide range of products over the next quarter to help offset what it projects to be a $1 billion hit from the tariffs levied against major trading partners such as Canada and China.
A report by the Tax Foundation on Monday estimated that the Trump tariffs would affect 75% of all food imported from other countries, which would add even more burden to American consumers. What's particularly troubling about the food tariffs, the Tax Foundation explained, is that they will fall on products such as bananas and coffee that are simply not capable of being grown on a mass scale in the United States.
"In 2024, the U.S. imported about $221 billion in food products, 74% of which ($163 billion) faced the Trump tariffs," wrote the Tax Foundation. "While these imports currently face tariff rates ranging from 10% to 30%, they will exceed 30% for some countries if the reciprocal tariffs go into effect on August 1. The top five exporters of food products to the U.S., in order, are Mexico, Canada, the E.U., Brazil, and China, accounting for 62% of total U.S. food imports."
'Worst-Case Scenario of Famine' Unfolding in Gaza: IPC Report
"An entirely man-made famine," said one United Nations expert. "The threshold of famine has been reached with widespread starvation and malnutrition across the war-torn enclave including among children."
Jul 29, 2025
The latest alert on Gaza from the world's leading authority on starvation and malnutrition is not a warning of what could come in the besieged enclave, where Israel is still blocking nearly all humanitarian aid, but of the "worst-case scenario" that has already taken hold.
"Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Phase Food Security Classification (IPC), which ranks food security levels on a scale of 1 to 5, in its Tuesday analysis.
Since the IPC's analysis in May, in which it projected that half a million Palestinians in Gaza would reach Phase 5—Catastrophe, defined as an "extreme lack of food"—by September, Israel's bombardments and ground operations have intensified, and people's access to food across the enclave has continued to be "alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous," said the IPC, with more than 1,000 people killed while trying to access food and humanitarian aid.
Between May and July, the proportion of households facing extreme hunger has doubled in Gaza, said the IPC, and the food consumption threshold for famine "has already been passed for most areas of the Gaza Strip." One in three people in Gaza are now going days at a time without consuming any food.
At least 147 people have died from starvation, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
In May, the IPC projected that malnutrition would soon reach critical levels in the governorates of North Gaza, Gaza, and Rafah, with more than 70,000 children under age 5 and 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women facing acute malnutrition—and said all of Gaza was facing "a risk of famine."
Tuesday's report, said the International Rescue Committee, was "a devastating but entirely predictable confirmation of what the IRC and the wider humanitarian community have long warned: Israel's restrictions on aid have created the conditions for famine, and the window to prevent mass death is rapidly closing."
More than 20,000 children have been admitted to health centers for treatment for acute malnutrition, with more than 3,000 facing severe malnourishment—the effects of which, said the IRC, can be "lifelong and irreversible" in children who survive.
At least 16 children under 5 have died from starvation since July 17, said the IPC—representing a "rapid increase" in hunger-related deaths that is unlikely to slow down without an end to Israel's blockade and a major ramp-up in the distribution of humanitarian aid—which is currently sitting in thousands of trucks just outside the enclave, as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Tuesday.
"The worst-case scenario of famine is now happening in Gaza according to the leading world experts," said Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, whose agency has provided aid and services to Palestinians in Gaza for decades. "An entirely man-made famine. The threshold of famine has been reached with widespread starvation and malnutrition across the war-torn enclave including among children. More than 100 people have died due to hunger in the past few weeks alone. The only way to reverse this catastrophe is to flood Gaza with a massive scale up of aid."
An estimated 62,000 metric tons of staple food—not including fresh foods like vegetables and meat—is required to enter Gaza each month to cover the basic needs of the population. In May and June, only 19,900-37,800 metric tons of food entered the enclave. That includes food provided by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, where Israeli soldiers have reported that they were directed to shoot at Palestinian civilians trying to access aid.
"People are starving not because food is unavailable, but because access is blocked, local agrifood systems have collapsed, and families can no longer sustain even the most basic livelihoods," said U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu. "We urgently need safe and sustained humanitarian access and immediate support to restore local food production and livelihoods—this is the only way to prevent further loss of life. The right to food is a basic human right."
As international outrage has grown over the images of starving Palestinians in recent days—with even the U.S. corporate media and Democratic establishment finally speaking out against Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid—Israel has paused some fighting and allowed airdrops of food, which aid groups have condemned as a "grotesque distraction" that will provide nowhere near the aid that's needed.
"Israel's genocide has thrown Gaza into the final chaotic stages of a full-blown human catastrophe," said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead for Oxfam in the occupied Palestinian territories. "Airdrops, and brief pauses for relative crumbs of aid, is nowhere near enough to prevent human death at an unimaginable scale. We need urgent forceful diplomacy and whatever restrictive measures are necessary in order to achieve an immediate and unconditional cease-fire, break Israel's siege, and allow humanitarian aid to flow freely and safely throughout Gaza."
As Common Dreams reported Monday, Republican leaders in the U.S. including President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have shown no signs that they will act on the new data in the IPC report; both continued to dismiss the international condemnation of Israel's blockade in Gaza, repeating debunked claims that Hamas is to blame for the starvation of Palestinians.
The U.S. has continued to provide the Israel Defense Forces with support despite its own laws stating that the U.S. cannot send military aid to countries that block humanitarian aid.
Khalidi said the IPC's new warning of "an unfolding famine—one created entirely by Israel's murderous siege—must finally rouse the international community to act with a clarity and resolve that has so far been beyond it."
"World leaders have been variously divided, complicit, uncaring, and collectively ineffectual in stopping Israel's campaign of erasure," said Khalidi. "In failing to protect the Palestinian people, they have no more excuses left. Ending Israel's genocide of Gaza is a test not only of our world order but of our collective humanity."
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