Things just got messy in New Jersey politics, and it’s all happening around a protest at an immigration detention centre. President Donald Trump‘s former acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, announced she’s dropping trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, but she’s doubling down with even more serious charges against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver.
Baraka, who’s currently running for governor, had landed himself in hot water after he joined a protest alongside McIver and other lawmakers at Delaney Hall, a controversial private detention facility that’s become a major ICE hub in the Northeast. The catch? It’s operating despite state laws that say it shouldn’t even be open.
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“After extensive consideration, we have agreed to dismiss Mayor Baraka’s misdemeanor charge of trespass for the sake of moving forward,” Habba said in a press release, reported NBC News. She even offered to give the mayor a guided tour of the facility, saying, “The government has nothing to hide at this facility, and I will personally accompany the mayor so he can see that firsthand.”
But while Baraka’s off the hook, McIver isn’t. Habba’s office is moving forward with charges against her for allegedly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement officers during the protest.
“That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey,” Habba stated, making it clear she feels duty-bound to act. She claimed she’d tried to sort things out with McIver behind the scenes without going down the criminal route, but said the congresswoman “declined.”
McIver isn’t taking it quietly, though. She’s fired back with a pointed statement of her own, calling the charges “politically motivated” and an attempt to derail her and other lawmakers from doing their job.
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“We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short,” she wrote. “This administration will never stop me from working for the people in our district and standing up for what is right.”
Adding to the confusion, legal analyst Lisa Rubin chimed in on social media, noting that while Habba says she’s filed charges against McIver, there’s no sign of them yet on the public docket.
So far, the situation is raising more questions than it answers—and with political tensions rising, it looks like this legal standoff is just heating up.
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