NEWARK, N.J. — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday at a federal immigration detention heart the place he has been protesting its opening this week. He was launched hours later and instructed supporters: “I did not do something mistaken.”
Baraka, a Democrat who’s operating to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the combat with the Trump administration over unlawful immigration.
He has aggressively pushed again in opposition to the development and opening of the 1,000-bed detention heart, arguing that it shouldn’t be allowed to open due to constructing allow points.
Linda Baraka, the mayor’s spouse, accused the federal authorities of focusing on her husband.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka speaks to protesters outdoors of Delaney Corridor, a lately re-opened immigration detention heart, in Newark, N.J., Wednesday, Might 7, 2025.
AP Picture/Seth Wenig
“They did not arrest anybody else. They did not ask anybody else to depart. They needed to make an instance out of the mayor,” she mentioned, including that she had not been allowed to see him.
A crowd gathered to protest outdoors the constructing the place Baraka was being held, with many chanting, “Let the mayor go!”
Alina Habba, interim U.S. legal professional for New Jersey, mentioned on the social platform X that Baraka dedicated trespass and ignored warnings from Homeland Safety personnel to depart Delaney Corridor, a detention facility run by personal jail operator Geo Group.
Habba mentioned Baraka had “chosen to ignore the regulation” and added that he was taken into custody.
Video of the incident confirmed that Baraka was arrested after returning to the general public aspect of the gate to the ability.
Witnesses describe a ‘heated argument’
Witnesses mentioned the arrest got here after Baraka tried to affix three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, in trying to enter the ability.
When federal officers blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, based on Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the general public aspect of the gates.
“There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez mentioned. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of many organizers to the bottom. They put Baraka in handcuffs and put him in an unmarked automobile.”
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., speaks with an officer demanding she be let into the ICE Detention workplace after the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Might 9, 2025, in Newark.
(AP Picture/Angelina Katsanis)
In an announcement, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned the lawmakers had not requested for a tour of the ability. The division mentioned additional that as a bus carrying detainees was coming into, “a gaggle of protestors, together with two members of the U.S. Home of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”
Homeland Safety didn’t reply to questions on why solely the mayor was arrested.
Watson Coleman spokesperson Ned Cooper mentioned the lawmakers went to the ability early within the afternoon unannounced as a result of their plan was to examine it, to not take a scheduled tour.
“They arrived, defined to the guards and the officers on the facility that they had been there to train their oversight authority,” he mentioned, including that they had been allowed to enter and examine the middle someday between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
DHS, in its assertion issued after Baraka’s arrest, mentioned Menendez, Watson Coleman and a variety of protesters had been at the moment “holed up in a guard shack” on the facility.
“Members of Congress will not be above the regulation and can’t illegally break into detention services. Had these members requested a tour, we might have facilitated a tour,” McLaughlin mentioned.
Watson Coleman, who left and was at a Homeland Safety Investigations holding facility the place Baraka was mentioned to have been taken, mentioned the DHS assertion inaccurately characterised the go to.
“Opposite to a press assertion put out by DHS we didn’t ‘storm’ the detention heart,” she wrote. “The creator of that press launch was so unfamiliar with the information on the bottom that they did not even accurately rely the variety of Representatives current. We had been exercising our authorized oversight operate as we now have achieved on the Elizabeth Detention Heart with out incident.”
Video exhibits the mayor standing on the general public aspect of the gate
In video of the altercation shared with The Related Press, a federal official in a jacket with the emblem of the Homeland Safety Investigations may be heard telling Baraka he couldn’t be a part of a tour of the ability as a result of “you aren’t a congress member.”
Baraka then left the safe space, rejoining protesters on the general public aspect of the gate. Video confirmed him talking via the gate to a person in a go well with, who mentioned: “They’re speaking about coming again to arrest you.”
“I am not on their property. They can not come out on the road and arrest me,” Baraka replied.
Minutes later a number of ICE brokers, some sporting face coverings, surrounded him and others on the general public aspect. As protesters cried out, “Disgrace,” Baraka was dragged again via the safety gate in handcuffs.
“The ICE personnel got here out aggressively to arrest him and seize him,” mentioned Julie Moreno, a New Jersey state captain of American Households United. “It did not make any sense why they selected that second to seize him whereas he was outdoors the gates.”
An e-mail and telephone message left with the mayor’s communications workplace weren’t instantly answered Friday afternoon. Kabir Moss, a spokesperson for Baraka’s gubernatorial marketing campaign, mentioned, “We’re actively monitoring and can present extra particulars as they turn into accessible.”
A number of civil rights and immigration reform advocates in addition to authorities officers condemned Baraka’s arrest. New Jersey Legal professional Normal Matthew J. Platkin, whose workplace is defending a state regulation barring personal immigration detention services, criticized the arrest throughout a seemingly peaceable protest and mentioned no state or native regulation enforcement businesses had been concerned.
The historical past of the ability
The 2-story constructing subsequent to a county jail previously operated as a midway home.
In February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to run the Newark detention heart. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, in an unusually lengthy and huge settlement for ICE.
The announcement was a part of President Donald Trump’s plans to sharply improve detention beds nationwide from a price range of about 41,000 beds this yr.
Baraka sued Geo quickly after the deal was introduced.
Geo touted the Delaney Corridor contract throughout its earnings name with shareholders Wednesday, with CEO David Donahue saying it was anticipated to generate greater than $60 million a yr in income. He mentioned the ability started the consumption course of Might 1.
Corridor mentioned the activation of the ability and one other in Michigan would improve whole capability underneath contract with ICE from round 20,000 beds to round 23,000.
DHS mentioned in its assertion that the ability has the correct permits and inspections have been cleared.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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