The American lawyer said that Baraka “ committed intrusions ” during the protest of the installation, which, according to him, opened without appropriate permit.
Defense groups and Democratic officials have decreed the arrest of the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, during a demonstration with an immigration detention center.
Mayor Ras Baraka had joined several legislators from the detention center, called Delaney Hall, for a demonstration on Friday.
For weeks, he was among those protesting against the center of 1,000 recently open beds, which criticism considers a key link in the mass deportation efforts of President Donald Trump.
The people present said that Baraka had sought to enter the establishment with members of the US Congress on Friday, but he was denied entry.
A video examined by the Associated Press showed a federal civil servant in a jacket with the logo of the Internal Security Investigation Unit, telling Baraka that he could not visit the establishment because “you are not a member of the Congress”.
Baraka then left the secure area, joining the demonstrators on the public side of the center door. The video has ahead of him speaking through the door of a man in costume. The man said, “They talk about coming back to stop you.”
“I am not on their property. They cannot go out in the street and stop me,” replied Baraka.
A few moments later, several agents of immigration and customs application (ICE), some carrying facial covers, surrounded the mayor and others on the public side of the door. Baraka was brought back through the security door in the handcuffs, while the demonstrators shouted: “Shame!”
In a later article on the social media platform X, Alina Habba, former personal lawyer of Trump and American lawyer for New Jersey, said that Baraka had “committed intrusions and ignored several warnings” from.
“He readily chose not to take into account the law. This will not remain in this state ”, Habba wrote. “He was placed in police custody. No one is above the law. “
On Friday, the American representative Lamonica Mciver was also at the center, as well as the representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr, to lead what they called an “surveillance inspection”.
In an article on X, Mciver said that Baraka “had done nothing wrong” and had already left the installation at the time of his arrest.
“It’s unacceptable,” said McIiver in the video.
For his part, a spokesperson for the Department of Internal Security accused the legislators of “storming” the installation in a “bizarre political blow”.
Baraka said the detention center – located in Newark, not far from New York – has opened its doors despite not having appropriate local permits and approvals. He launched a trial to stop his operations.
The GEO group, which manages the center in coordination with ICE, denied its claims. He concluded an agreement with the federal government in February to manage the installations of Delaney Hall, under a 15 -year contract worth $ 1 billion.
“Unjust arrest”
Local elected officials quickly condemned the actions of federal agents, with the state governor, Phil Murphy, writing on X that he was “indignant by the unjust arrest” of Baraka.
Murphy described the mayor as “an exemplary official who has always defended our most vulnerable mayors” and called on his release.
The governor noted that New Jersey had previously adopted a law prohibiting private immigration detention centers in the state, a democratic bastion, although it was partially canceled by a federal court in 2023. An appeal is underway.
Baraka, who presents himself in the Democrat primary next month for the governor, was a frank critic of immigration policies in the Trump administration.
He took a provocative tone against the Trump administration in January, after ice companies made a descent into the city he leads.
“Newark will not be dotted while people are illegally terrorized,” he said at the time.
