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'None of Us Knows Who Will Be Next,' Pro-Democracy Coalition Says After McIver Indictment
"Our justice system should not be a tool in Trump's authoritarian power grabs," said the Not Above the Law Coalition.
Jun 11, 2025
The leaders of a pro-democracy coalition warned Tuesday that the grand jury indictment of Democratic U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver marks a "chilling escalation" of President Donald Trump's lawless and dangerous efforts to crush his political opponents using the power of the federal government, including the Justice Department and U.S. military.
"Trump has shown time and again that he’ll use the levers of federal power to punish his critics," said the Not Above the Law coalition, an alliance that includes more than 150 advocacy groups, grassroots organizers, legal scholars, and others.
"Whether it's deploying the military against protesters in California, arresting a sitting judge in Wisconsin, or prosecuting members of Congress in New Jersey, his actions are designed to silence anyone who stands in his way and undermine checks and balances," said coalition co-chairs Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, Praveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn, and Brett Edkins of Stand Up America.
McIver (D-N.J.) was indicted Tuesday on three counts of "forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers," charges stemming from her involvement in a May oversight visit at a privately run migrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey and subsequent confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside of the facility.
If found guilty, McIver could face up to 17 years in prison.
"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."
In a statement following the indictment, McIver said she will be "entering a plea of not guilty" and expressed confidence 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," said McIver. "But it won't work—I will not be intimidated."
The Not Above the Law coalition said Tuesday that the McIver indictment is an ominous signal of what's to come as Trump wields the military and federal government to quell opposition to his mass deportation agenda and other abuses of power.
"In just the past few days, we have seen Trump target a labor leader representing hardworking Californians and a member of Congress representing her New Jersey constituents," the alliance said, referring to McIver as well as SEIU California president David Huerta.
Huerta was arrested last Friday at the site of an ICE raid in Los Angeles. The labor leader, who was released from federal custody Monday on a $50,000 bond, was charged with conspiracy to impede an officer, a felony that carries up to six years in prison.
"None of us knows who will be next," the coalition said Tuesday. "The DOJ should immediately drop these politically motivated, unwarranted charges—our justice system should not be a tool in Trump's authoritarian power grabs. Congresswoman McIver deserves justice—and so does our democracy."
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'Should Send a Chill Down the Spine of Every American': Trump DOJ Charges New Jersey Democrat
"The most corrupt administration in our country's history is targeting and punishing public officials who seek to hold them accountable."
May 20, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's Justice Department announced Monday that it is pursuing assault charges against a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey who took part in an oversight visit at a privately run migrant detention center in Newark earlier this month.
In a statement, Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba announced the charges against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), claiming the lawmaker "assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement" at GEO Group's Delaney Hall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded GEO Group a billion-dollar contract earlier this year to detain migrants there, even as the facility faced legal challenges and accusations of abuse.
McIver rejected the charges against her as "purely political," saying that "they mischaracterize and distort my actions" in an attempt to "criminalize and deter legislative oversight."
"We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short," said McIver. "Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor [Ras] Baraka."
Habba said Monday that her office has agreed to drop the trespassing charge against Baraka, who welcomed the decision while expressing solidarity with McIver.
"Congresswoman McIver is a daughter of Newark, past Newark Council president, a former student of mine, and a dear friend," said Baraka. "I want to be clear: I stand with LaMonica, and I fully expect her to be vindicated."
"It reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration and its relentless, illegal attempts to suppress any dissent or oversight."
The U.S. attorney's announcement sparked an outpouring of support for McIver and grave warnings about the implications of the Trump administration's attempt to prosecute her and other officials who try to stand in the way of its lawless mass deportation effort.
"This is a clear political attack on Rep. LaMonica McIver for having the courage to stand up to Trump's abuses of power," said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. "Let's be clear who the real lawbreakers are. In just the last week, both Donald Trump and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi have been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Bondi sold millions of shares of stock on the same day that Trump announced his disastrous tariffs. And Trump accepted a $400 million luxury plane from the Qatari royal family."
"The most corrupt administration in our country's history is targeting and punishing public officials who seek to hold them accountable," Mitchell added.
McIver's fellow congressional Democrats also rallied to her defense.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) called the charges a "purely political act" and said that "oversight is not a criminal offense unless you are living under a fascist regime."
The chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), said that "the baseless charges against Congresswoman McIver for simply doing her job should send a chill down the spine of every American."
A group of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee warned that "charging members of Congress for doing our jobs is a dangerous precedent to set."
"It reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration and its relentless, illegal attempts to suppress any dissent or oversight, including from judges, members of Congress, and the American people, which check lawless executive power," the lawmakers said. "Representative McIver has our full support, and we will do everything in our power to help fight this outrageous threat to our constitutional system."
The scene at Delaney Hall earlier this month was highly chaotic, with video footage showing jostling and heated verbal exchanges outside of the facility's gate as federal agents moved to arrest Baraka after three New Jersey lawmakers—McIver and Reps. Robert Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman—visited the inside of the detention center, which they have a right to do under federal law.
The Department of Homeland Security released a video claiming to show McIver "assaulting" an ICE agent, and one DHS official accused the Democratic lawmaker of "body-slamming" and "body-ramming" officers. McIver, who rejected the claims, said at the time that federal agents at the scene were "roughing up members of Congress."
Watson Coleman, who is 80 years old, said she was "manhandled" by ICE agents as they moved to arrest Baraka.
In a statement late Monday, Mike Zamore of the national ACLU and Amol Sinha of ACLU-NJ said that "the Trump administration's political charges against Congresswoman McIver [are] a method more suited for authoritarianism than American democracy."
"If the Trump administration can target elected officials who oppose its extreme agenda, it can happen to any one of us," they said. "We demand that they drop the charges against Rep. McIver, and we implore her fellow members of Congress to call for the same."
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'This Is Not Normal': Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Arrested at Contested ICE Detention Facility
"They are arresting elected officials for peacefully opposing the regime's illegal actions."
May 09, 2025
Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday afternoon at a newly reopened immigrant detention facility in New Jersey's largest city.
Baraka was accompanying three of the state's congressional Democrats to Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility operated by the private prison company the GEO Group.
The 1,196-bed facility—the first immigrant detention center to open since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January after campaigning on mass deportations—began housing detainees on May 1, despite an ongoing legal battle over its operation.
Video footage posted online shows a verbal altercation between Baraka—who is running for governor and has been critical of ICE action under Trump—and men in blue jackets labeled "police."
According toPIX11:
Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join a scheduled tour of the facility with three members of New Jersey's congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.
"There was yelling and pushing," Martinez said. "Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car."
Amanda Lee, a journalist with New Jersey's News 12, posted footage of the crowd near the gate and the mayor being led away in handcuffs.
Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey,
said on social media that Baraka "committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. 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."
Baraka's office told PIX11 that the mayor was taken to an ICE field office at 620 Frelinghuysen Ave. in Newark, adding that "we are actively monitoring and will provide more details as they become available."
The members of Congress explained on social media that they were at the facility to conduct oversight. As Watson Coleman put it: "We're at Delaney Hall, an ICE prison in Newark that opened without permission from the city and in violation of local ordinances. We've heard stories of what it's like in other ICE prisons. We're exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement that did not address Baraka's arrested but said that "as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center, a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility," naming Menendez and Watson Coleman.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that "members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. 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 an evolving situation."
The department also claimed that "the allegations made by Newark politicians that Delaney does not have the proper permitting are false. We have valid permits, and inspections for plumbing and electricity, and fire codes have been cleared."
Watson Coleman shared a lengthy response on social media, saying in part: "Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not 'storm' the detention center. The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn't even correctly count the number of representatives present. We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident."
Responding to the news of Baraka's arrest on social media Friday, Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois, said in all caps: "They are arresting elected officials for peacefully opposing the regime's illegal actions. Do not allow them to overwhelm you. This is not normal."
I am outraged by the unjust arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka earlier this afternoon outside of Delaney Hall in Newark. I am calling for his immediate release by federal law enforcement.
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— Governor Phil Murphy (@govmurphy.bsky.social) May 9, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement that "Mayor Baraka's arrest during an oversight visit to an ICE facility in Newark is shocking overreach of power, even by Trump standards."
"Trump and his cronies are pulling straight from the authoritarian playbook. They want to silence anyone who seeks to hold them accountable," he added. "Mayor Baraka must be released immediately, and New Jersey elected officials must be allowed inside the Delaney Hall ICE facility."
ACLU of New Jersey executive director Amol Sinha similarly condemned Baraka's arrest as "a shameful escalation of the Trump administration's intimidation campaign against officials who refuse to do their bidding."
"Mayor Baraka—and lawmakers across New Jersey and the country—are being targeted by the Trump administration for refusing to be complicit with its ongoing violations of due process," said Sinha. "Mayor Baraka must be immediately released from custody, and the Trump administration must end its assault on the fundamental rights at the core of our democracy."
The group Indivisible declared his arrest "a warning sign of just how far Trump and his allies are willing to go to silence dissent," and "authoritarian behavior, plain and simple."
"For months, Trump has been using ICE as a political weapon, targeting immigrants, communities of color, and students exercising their right to free speech," Indivisible noted. "Now, it's being used to intimidate elected officials who dare to speak out. That should alarm everyone."
"Mayor Baraka was peacefully demanding answers on dangerous policies that hurt his community. He was being a leader. We demand the immediate release of Mayor Baraka, and an end to these unlawful and unconstitutional detainments. We won't be intimidated or silenced," the group added. "We stand with Mayor Baraka and every brave leader who refuses to back down, and call on every other elected leader to follow his courageous example."
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