NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday at an federal immigration detention center where he was protesting its opening, a federal prosecutor said.
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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.
The mayor has been protesting the opening of the facility throughout this week, saying its operators did not get proper permits.
In her social media post, Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law.” She added that he was taken into custody.
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.
“The agents started intimidating and putting their hands on the congresswomen. 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.”
An email and phone message left with the mayor’s communications office were not immediately answered Friday afternoon.
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.
The two-story building next to a county prison operated as a halfway house before a February announcement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it and the GEO Group reached a $1 billion, 15-year deal for a detention center there.
Baraka sued GEO Group soon after the deal was announced.