(Headline USA) Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday at for allegedly breaking into a federal immigration detention center as an apparent act of protest.
Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka committed trespass and ignored warnings from Homeland Security personnel to leave Delaney Hall, an detention facility run by private prison operator GEO Group.
Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law” and added that he was taken into custody.
The Mayor of Newark, Ras 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…
— US Attorney Habba (@USAttyHabba) May 9, 2025
Baraka, a Democrat who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration.
He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.
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.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that as a bus of detainees was entering the 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.”
🚨 #BREAKING: MULTIPLE Democrat members of Congress have BROKEN INTO an ICE facility in New Jersey, and the Mayor of Newark has been ARRESTED by DHS
They waited for the busses to open the gates, and they stormed in.
THIS IS A FEDERAL CRIME! ARREST REPS. MENENDEZ AND WATSON TOO! pic.twitter.com/tXeJI5xDJX
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 9, 2025
It said the two members of Congress, Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman, and a number of protesters were currently “holed up in a guard shack” at the facility.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin was quote in the statement as calling it “beyond a bizarre political stunt” and saying it put agents’ and detainees’ safety 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,” McLaughlin said.
The department said the facility has the proper permits and inspections have been cleared.
An email and phone message left with the mayor’s communications office were not immediately answered Friday afternoon. Kabir Moss, a spokesperson for Baraka’s gubernatorial campaign, said, “We are actively monitoring and will provide more details as they become available.”
The two-story building next to a county prison formerly operated as a halfway house.
Then in February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to run the Newark detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, which is an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.
The announcement was part of President Donald Trump’s plans to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from a budget of about 41,000 beds this year.
Baraka sued GEO Group soon after the deal was announced.
Geo touted the contract with Delaney Hall during its earnings call with shareholders Wednesday, with CEO David Donahue saying it was expected to generate more than $60 million a year in revenue. He said the facility began the intake process May 1.
Hall said the activation of facility and another in Michigan would increase total capacity under contract with ICE from around 20,000 beds to around 23,000.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
