Rep. LaMonica McIver must face federal charges over incident at ICE detention center, judge rules
The judge rejected the New Jersey Democrat's attempt to dismiss her case.
ByAaron Katersky
November 13, 2025, 11:17 AM
Congresswoman LaMonica McIver must face at least two of three federal charges accusing her of assaulting and impeding immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center after federal judge on Thursday rejected her attempt to dismiss the case.
The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials following her May 9 visit to Delaney Hall, a privately owned, 1,000-bed facility in Newark that ICE uses as a detention center.
The government alleges McIver intervened as federal agents attempted to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper turned down McIver's arguments that she is immune from prosecution under the Speech or Debate Clause.
"Impeding an arrest, whether lawful or unlawful, goes beyond any reasonable definition of oversight and, accordingly, exceeds the safe harbor of legislative immunity," Semper wrote in an order published Thursday.
McIver's actions as described in count one, which alleged she placed her arms around the mayor in an attempt to thwart his arrest and then slammed her forearm into a federal agent, were "wholly disconnected from the oversight she and the Representatives later conducted when touring the facility, where they engaged in protected fact-finding related to federal immigration policy," the judge continued. "Defendant's presence at Delaney Hall does not grant constitutional protection for every act performed in connection to that visit."
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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-lamonica-mciver-face-federal-charges-incident-ice/story?id=127491258
