By Shauneen Miranda, Michigan Advance
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats on Tuesday blasted the assault charges the Trump administration is pursuing against New Jersey U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver following a clash with law enforcement earlier this month outside an immigration detention center in Newark.
Leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, Democratic Women’s Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus defended McIver at a press conference attended by dozens of Democrats outside of the U.S. Capitol, arguing that the New Jersey Democrat was simply doing her job in conducting oversight of the facility.
In a criminal complaint, McIver is charged with two counts of “assaulting, resisting, and impeding certain officers or employees,” with one charge involving a Homeland Security Investigations special agent and another surrounding an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer.
The charges are tied to McIver’s May 9 visit to the detention center, where she was accompanied by fellow New Jersey Democrats — Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman. The lawmakers had said they wanted to inspect the detention center.
Federal authorities say McIver assaulted two officers as she tried to prevent the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Alina Habba, acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, announced Monday that she would be dropping a trespassing charge against Baraka stemming from the same standoff.
‘Reprehensible political stunt’
At the Capitol press conference, Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, described the charges as a “reprehensible political stunt.”
The New York Democrat said “members of Congress have every right to conduct oversight at ICE facilities and any other federal agency, and when egregious, undeniable and vicious violations of the law and people’s freedoms are taking place, we, they, in fact, have an obligation to do so.”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said McIver, Menendez and Watson Coleman “stood their ground, used their voice and did their job.”
“They actually are obeying the Constitution. They are standing up to give checks and balances to this administration at a time that the Republicans in control of the House and the Senate are laying down and completely abrogating their duties to check and balance and give oversight to the president,” he added.
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone also condemned the charges on Tuesday, calling the Justice Department’s actions “outrageous.”
Ahead of a Tuesday hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on “threats to ICE operations,” Pallone led several other New Jersey Democrats in writing to the panel’s chair, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, and ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, to express their support for the three lawmakers’ oversight visit to the detention center.
The group also condemned what they see as efforts from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to “politicize and suppress lawful Congressional oversight through acts of intimidation and threats of legal action against our colleagues.”
‘Baseless charges’
Rep. Greg Casar, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the Department of Justice “filing baseless charges against a member of Congress for simply doing her job should send a chill down the spine of every American.”
The Texas Democrat said the caucus held a meeting just before the press conference where they decided that they are “just about to go and do a lot more oversight visits at ICE facilities.”
He said the members of the caucus recognized at the meeting that President Trump “doesn’t want us conducting oversight at ICE facilities like these brave members of Congress were doing — he wants to intimidate us out of doing that.”
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