(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez may be behind bars on corruption charges, but his son, Rep. Rob Menendez, appeared eager to defend the family name during a heated confrontation with a peaceful protester outside a New Jersey ICE facility over Memorial Day weekend.
Menendez, a Democrat representing the same New Jersey district his father held for over a decade before joining the Senate, was caught on tape verbally attacking and flipping off a pro-ICE protester after being confronted about his incarcerated father.
“Fuck you!” Menendez shouted while aggressively approaching the protester outside the Delaney Hall Detention Facility. Video of the incident was captured by independent journalist Yaakov Strasberg.
Congressman Rob Menendez (D-NJ) gets heckled by a lone pro-ICE counter-protester who asks about how his dad is doing (Bob Menendez was convicted in a political fraud case), and says that Menendez is responsible for the death of Dayanara Cortez.
Rob Menendez goes off at him,… pic.twitter.com/xMdJCYxSyq
— Yaakov Strasberg (@YaakovStras) May 26, 2026
The protester was standing outside the facility holding a sign bearing the name of a New Jersey woman killed after an illegal alien allegedly crashed head-on into her vehicle while intoxicated. Cortes’s 11-year-old daughter, Maria, was also killed in the harrowing crash.
“How’s your dad, congressman?” the protester asked while Menendez spoke to reporters. “Congressman, you helped kill Dayanara Cortes.”
Menendez, seemingly agitated by the protester, abruptly stopped answering questions and confronted him directly.
“Do you believe pregnant women should be there right now?” Menendez asked, likely in reference to the detention center.
“Yes, you just have to sign a paper and go home,” the protester replied.
After a brief back-and-forth exchange, Menendez snapped, “Fuck you!” while raising his middle finger toward the man.
“How’s your dad? Tell me more,” the man fired back.
Menendez continued arguing with the man even as aides tried to calm him down. At one point, the congressman aggressively pointed at the protester while shouting: “You’re a liar!”
The altercation unfolded as anti-ICE activists and Democrat lawmakers demonstrated outside Delaney Hall to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Rob Menendez is the youngest son of the disgraced former senator, while Alicia Menendez, the left-wing MSNBC host, is the eldest sibling.
Bob Menendez is currently serving his sentence at LSCI Allenwood, a low-security federal prison in Pennsylvania, after being convicted on bribery, foreign agent and obstruction-related offenses.
