Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey is set to have her first appearance in federal court Wednesday on assault charges stemming from immigration officials’ attempt to arrest the Newark mayor outside a detention facility.
The interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, charged McIver, a twice-elected member of Congress, this week with two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer. McIver has denied the charges, and Democrats have rallied to her defense.
The prosecutor’s complaint says McIver attempted to stop the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka and pushed into and grabbed agents for Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
McIver has denounced the charge as “purely political” and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.
Habba had charged Baraka with trespassing after his arrest but dismissed the allegation on Monday when she said in a social media post that she was instead charging the congresswoman. Baraka is a Democratic candidate for governor in next month’s primary election.
Prosecuting McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.
The case instantly taps into a broader and more consequential struggle between a Trump administration engaged in overhauling immigration policy and a Democratic Party scrambling to respond.
McIver’s Democratic colleagues cast the prosecution as an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents and an effort to silence their opposition to an immigration policy that helped propel the president back into power but now has emerged as divisive fault line in American political discourse.
Under the law, members of Congress are authorized to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill that spelled out the authority.
“That’s the first contact that we’ve actually had from her, so we don’t know what she has intended, but we’re ready for whenever it might be,” she said.
Watson Coleman added that Habba’s office has indicated that charges are still on the table.
“It’s a possibility and it may be a probability,” she said. “We shall see.”
A message seeking comment on Tuesday was left with Habba’s office.
McIver, 38, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November. A Newark native, she served as the president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.