(Headline USA) Rep. LaMonica McIver pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center during a congressional oversight visit at the facility.
McIver, a Democrat, was charged by interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba following the May 9 visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses the privately owned, 1,000-bed facility as a detention center.
This month she was indicted on three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. Two of the counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. The third is a misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of one year in prison.
The judge set a Nov. 10 trial date.
Among those at McIver’s side Wednesday were her family and elected officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was outside the detention center with McIver and other legislators on May 9.
Baraka was also arrested on a trespassing charge that was later dropped and is suing Habba over what he called a malicious prosecution.
A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting “surround the mayor.” The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow struck a police officer.
United States Representative LaMonica McIver has still not been arrested after assaulting multiple federal officers on video.
Within 48 hours of smiling and waving in the Capitol on J6, I was in county jail isolation under 24-hour supervision, charged with 3 crimes, 2 were lies,… pic.twitter.com/ef3iLktGHb
— The Lectern Guy🇺🇸 (@lecternleader) May 11, 2025
McIver, 39, 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 was president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
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