Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, announced in a new memo that her office has filed criminal charges against Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver, who visited an immigration detention center in Newark this month.

Newsweek reached out to McIver’s office for comment via email on Monday.

The Context

Democratic Representatives McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, along with Newark Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka, were outside the Delaney Hall detention center on May 9, urging federal officials to allow them inside so they could observe conditions at the facility.

All four officials were allowed into the center and the three congressional Democrats tried to include Baraka—who had been denied entry into Delaney Hall three days prior—in their conversations.

A scuffle soon broke out between ICE agents, protesters at the entrance and the four Democrats. Baraka was subsequently arrested and taken into custody by ICE, an experience he described as “humiliating,” adding: “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

McIver, meanwhile, was accused by Habba and other Trump administration officials of attacking ICE agents, a charge she has vehemently denied.

What To Know

Habba charged in her memo on Monday that McIver “assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement.”

“That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey, and it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties,” the memo said.

McIver said in a statement to The New Jersey Globe: “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. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka. The charges against me are purely political—they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight.”

Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Baraka

Habba also announced in Monday’s memo that prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor trespassing charge against Baraka “for the sake of moving forward.”

This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.