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Three members of Congress stormed through the gates of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in New Jersey on Friday, demanding they be allowed to conduct an “oversight visit.”
Reps. Rob Menendez Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver, all New Jersey Democrats, entered ICE’s Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark and were held up inside the first checkpoint, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News.
“These members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and the detainees at risk,” a DHS statement to Fox News said. “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. This is an evolving situation.”
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The prison currently holds alleged killers, MS-13 gang members, child rapists, among other criminal offenders.
The lawmakers were outside the facility with a group of protesters when the gates opened to allow an ICE bus in. The lawmakers then rushed through the gates and past security, DHS said.
Activists have demanded entry into the facility in recent days, saying the GEO Group, the building’s new owner, is unlawfully preventing it from being inspected.
“We’re at Delaney Hall, an ICE prison in Newark that opened without permission from the city & in violation of local ordinances,” Coleman wrote on X. “We’ve heard stories of what it’s like in other ICE prisons. We’re exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves.”
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McIver said the “lack of transparency around what’s happening with ICE in this facility is unacceptable. People deserve dignity and we need answers.”
In a press conference on Monday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said GEO Group is “following the pattern of the president of the United States who believes that he can just do what he wants to do and obscure the laws, national and constitutional laws, and they think they can do the same thing in the state of New Jersey and in Newark.”
On Friday, Baraka was taken into custody at the facility, according to Alina Habba, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
“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,” Habba wrote on X. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the City of Newark on April 1 alleges that GEO Group failed to permit entry to safety inspectors and violated city construction code, including by conducting electrical and plumbing renovations without proper oversight.
The Department of Homeland Security said the allegations by Newark politicians that Delaney does not have the proper permitting is false.
“We have valid permits and inspection from plumbing, electricity to fire codes has been cleared,” the agency said.
Fox News Digital’s Max Bacall contributed to this report.
