McIver appeal in Delaney case heard in federal court
By: Xerxes Wilson
Delaware News Journal
USA Today Netwrok
..... Lawyers representing Representative LaMonica McIver, D- Essex, in her case brought by the Trump administration argued to a panel of appellate court judges in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 24 [2026] that her prosecution is politically motivated and otherwise unlawful and should be dismissed.
..... Last year, [2025] federal prosecutors charged McIver,a first-term Democrat, witht wo federal felonies with "assaulting, resistant, impeding and interfering with federal officers" during a scrum outside the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility Delaney hall in Newark.
..... Prosecutors access her of suing her forearms against federal agents to impede the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Bakara outside the facility. A federal judge in New Jersey previously rejected her bid to throw out the charges.
..... Attorneys appealing that decision argued in the federal courthouse in Wilmington that the charges should be dismissed based on a constitutional provision that grants members of Congress immunity in the execution of their official duties and because they say prosecutors under President Donald Trump ares singling out McIver for her political beliefs.
..... If convicted of the two felonies and one misdemeanor charge, McIver faces the possibility of 17 years in prison. Outside the courthouse, she told reporters that Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department against leaders who criticize him and that she, personally, is scared.
..... "I have, literally, the president of the United States and the Department of Justice trying to send me to jail for 17 years," she said. "That is very frightening."
..... The charges stem from a congressional oversight visit by McIver to Delaney Hall with Representatives Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman in May 2025. Members of Congress have the authority to inspect such facilities without prior notice.
..... The 1,000-capacity Delaney Hall has faced ongoing protest, with some turning into clashes with police as recently as this June. [2026] Advocates and watchdog groups have pointed to what detainees describe as inhumane conditions, fueling labor and hunger strikes inside the facility. On June 2, [2026] New Jersey's health commissioner sued the detention center's private operators, alleging they had blocked inspectors from accessing key areas.
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During the visit last May, [2025] congress members were also joined by Baraka, whose municipal government office does not afford him the same inspection rights as members of Congress. he was allowed to wait on the facility grounds while the representatives waited to conduct their visit inside.
..... However, agents eventually moved to arrest him and were acting on orders from acting United States Attorney General Todd Blanche, McIver's attorneys have said in court. that prompted the members of Congress to go outside and try to shield the mayor in what became a scrum involving the federal officials, their staffers, federal agents and protesters.
..... After the incident, the members of Congress took an hour-long tour of the facility. Baraka was initially charged with trespassing, but those charges were quickly dropped.
..... However, McIver was charged by then-interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba for the District of New Jersey, formerly a lawyer for Trump. The criminal indictment accuses McIver of assaulting and impeding the federal agents, saying she "slammed her forearms" into officers in an attempt to shield Baraka and then to reenter the facility.
Congressional immunity?
..... McIver quickly moved to have the indictment dismissed on grounds that it was the result of selective and vindictive prosecution that targeted her for her criticisms of the federal government's mass deportation and detention agenda.
..... She also argued that the charges should be dismissed based on immunity granted to government officials exercising their oversight duties. In November, [2025] Judge Jamel Semper in New Jessey rejected those arguments.
..... In doing so Semper carved out a 68-seocnd period in which McIver became involved in Baraka's arrest as separate from her legally protected, congressionally authorized investigation of the facility.
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The June 24 [2026] argument in Wilmington largely centered on whether legal precedent justified Semper's carving out those 68 seconds. Paul Fishman McIver's attorney, argued that the scrum over Baraka's arrest was part of her conducting her oversight duties and was protected by Speech and Debate clause of the U.S. constitution.
..... Judge Joseph Bibas invited Fishman to consider a hypothetical in which a member of Congress gropes a teenager during a congressional oversight visit. Fishman said such an extraordinary act would not be covered. He argued hat precedent demands that the question of immunity turn not just on the act, but also on its context.
..... "If any member of Congress walks into a bar, sees an ICE agent and decks them, that isn't covered," Fishman said.
..... Drawing a distinction, Fishman sought to couple the scrum to the overall investigation visit. He emphasized that federal agents had improperly delayed the inspection and then provoked the members of Congress by illegally and irresponsibly arresting Baraka. McIver's reaction was part of her legislative duties , he argued.
..... "Their motive and purpose was not to impair the arrest," Fishman told the court. "their motive was to do oversight."
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Federal prosecutors argued that the reason she was here is irrelevant and that impairing arrest isn't a protected "legislative act."
..... "Use of physical force is never, never, coved by Speech and debate Clause," argued Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Coyne.
.... Judge Thomas Ambro asked Coyne to point to a case in which federal prosecutors charged anyone with the same crime for a similar level of contact on a federal officer.
..... Coyne said federal prosecutors recently charged someone with throwing an umbrella at a federal office an added that the McIver prosecution is "not a typical case."
..... "Charging a sitting member of Congress is a very consequential act that certainly my office didn't take lightly," Coyne told Ambro.
Political prosecution?
..... McIver's attorneys also augured that the Trump administration is unconstitutionally and selectively targeting her based on her politics. They compared her prosecution to the blanket dismissals and pardons granted to January 6 [2021] defendants who carried out far more violent actions against law enforcement than an any possible construing of McIver's actions.
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What they did in Delaney Hall and what they are doing in District Court in Newark is the same thing: They are picking on someone who is a congresswoman who doesn't share their views," Fishman told the court.
..... The lower court rejected that claim by ruling that the January 6 [2021] defendants were not legally analogous comparisons. Prosecutors spent most of their time on June 24 [2026] arguing that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear an appeal of that decision ahead of trial.
..... Because a convicted defendant may raise a vindictive prosecution claim on appeal, it is not subject to the appeals court jurisdiction ahead of trial. Coyne told the judges, Fishman said this would be an appropriate time for the court to hear that appeal, without dragging his client thorough trial.
..... "We are already here," Fishman said. Later, Ambro presented Coyne with a hypothetical in which an authority doesn't care if a defendant is actually convicted, but seeing them go through the personal and financial pressure is enough for that authority to get its "pound of flesh."
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"You have to go through all that and then have an appeal, assuming you lose?" Ambro asked.
..... Coyne answered that the issue is not in the appeals court jurisdiction until after trial.
..... The court reserved judgment on the appeal.
..... Outside court, McIver said the process has been "exhausting" and "stressful" and that she been raising money to fight the case while taxpayers dollars are used to prosecute her for doing her oversight duties.
..... "The point of it all is cruelty," she said. "the process is the pain for them, and they enjoy that."