Newark mayor freed after arrest at protest

Ras Baraka says he did nothing wrong

By: Ricardo Kaulesar
and Nicholas Katzban
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was released from federal custody Friday [05/09/2025] evening after immigration agents arrested him after he sought to enter a new immigrant detention facility in New Jersey's largest city.
..... Multiple videos shared on social media platforms show Baraka being led off in handcuffs while visiting Delaney Hall, the Newark prison that the Trump administration has turned into an immigrant detention center. Members of congress were visiting the detention facility as part of congressional oversight.
..... Baraka, who is running in the primary to be the Democratic nominee for governor, was with U.S. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and rob Menendez, all Democrats from New Jersey.
..... "I did;t do anything wrong," Baraka told the crowd after his release. "I'm out, I'm going home.
..... He asked the crowd to disperse peacefully, and said that "the power of our demand is that what we ask for is correct."
..... "I actually didn't come here to protest," he said. "I came down here to support our congress people and that's OK, it's a part of what our democracy is about."
..... Baraka said: "We have a right to be hear. We struggled on these str4eets." He also promised his attorneys that we would not discuss the case.
..... Video shared by the Baraka campaign with NorthJersey.com and USA Today Network shows Watson Coloman and McIver - and later Memenedez - attempting to stop federal Homeland Security Investigation agents form detaining Baraka. At one point, a federal agent put his hands on McIver in an effort to reach to Baraka with handcuffs. Menendez can be seen trying to stop federal officers as they tried to move Baraka, Watson Coleman and McIver from a crowd of demonstrators.
..... Kenyatta Stewart, corporation counsel for the city of Newark, said earlier Friday [04/09/2025] evening that attorneys had been working to see the mayor released. Baraka was detained at a DHS field office.
..... They invited him in," Steward said. "A GEO security guard actually opened the gate and he did and they arrested him outside the gate. We now have a team of lawyers working to get him out."

What precipitated the apparent arrest?

..... Federal agents allowed the congress members and Baraka to pass thorough a gate onto the Delaney Hall premises, according to Viri Martinez of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrate Justice, who witness Baraka being arrested.
..... After that, the agents began "talking down" to Congress members, and they started surrounding Baraka, who was shielded by his staff. She said Baraka was put in handcuffs and then taken into an unmarked car.
..... Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba posted on X: "The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, commuted trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigation to remove himself form the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. [04/09/2025] 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.'
..... The three congressional representatives visited the facility unannounced as part of their oversight authority as members of Congress.
..... The congressional delegation entered the facility and were escorted inside, said Ned Cooper, a spokesperson for Watson Coleman. After the representatives exited the facility, there was a scuffle that included the congress members as agents were going to arrest Baraka, and the crowd surged, Copper said.
..... McIver told reporters outside the detention center that Baraka did nothing wrong.
..... "He went inside the gate and told them he was waiting for us to come out. ... They asked him to leave. He left out of the gate." He was then arrested after he had already exited the facility, she said.
..... "What we see here is despicable and we all should be angry," McIver said. "this is unacceptable."
..... Kabir Moss, spokespersons for Baraka gubernatorial campaign, said that Baraka was taken to the Department of Homeland Security Field Office at 620 Frelinghuysen Alene.
..... Adam McGovern, a legislate strategist at Wind of the Spirit, an immigrant advocacy group, ripped the Trump administration for the arrest and the operation of Delaney Hall.
..... "It was a logical conclusion of a lawless administration," McGovern said. "They are existing outside the law and starting this facility where people are being disappeared."
..... A press release issued by the Department of Homeland Security said that members of congress stormed the facility and called it a "bizarre political stunt" that put the safety of agents and detainees at risk.
..... "Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not "storm" the detention center," Coleman said in a statement.
..... "The author of hat press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn't even correctly count the number of representatives present. We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident."
..... In February, [2025] the federal Immigration and Customs enforcement Ag3ency awarded GEO Group a contract to hold migrants facing deportation at Delaney Hall, a 1,100-bed facility near the Essex County Jail along an industrial stretch of Newark near the New Jersey Turnpike.
..... The contract was seen as a sign of the Trump administration's plans to accelerate his campaign promises of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. The facility also close to Newark International Airport, which will make it easier for authorities to ship out detainees from the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.
..... Baraka has targeted Delaney Hall as a symbol of the Trump administration's Draconian immigration policy for months, including an appearance in March [2025] where he was joined by a said variety of social justice activists.
..... After Immigration and Customs Enforcement began housing detainees at Delaney Hall on May 1, [2025] Baraka, during a press conference on May 5, [2025] slammed the GEO Group for putting detainees in the facility despite the city's lawsuit, which asked GOE to "cease occupancy [and] construction."
..... some immigrant advocate groups have held vigils near the facility in the days leading up to Baraka's arrest. Advocates were also critical of Baraka's arrest while commending the mayor.

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