During a dramatic moment taken in picture on Friday, the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested in a federal immigration detention center where he protested his opening this week, said a federal prosecutor.
Baraka can be heard in the video saying that he was not part of the property of immigration and the application of customs, after someone stands behind the end of the establishment said that the agents “speak of returning to the arrest” the mayor.
“I am not on their property,” replied Baraka in the images. “They cannot go out on the street and stop me.”
“I agree,” said the person behind the fence, before moving away.
Baraka aggressively postponed the construction and opening of the 1,000 bed detention center, arguing that it should not be authorized to open due to construction permit problems.
Witnesses said that the arrest intervened after Baraka tried to join a planned visit to the establishment with three members of the New Jersey Congress Delegation, representatives Robert Menendez, Lamonica McIiver and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
According to Viri Martinez, an activist from the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, a stormy argument broke out when federal officials blocked his entry.
“There were howls and thrusts,” said Martinez. “Then the police invaded Baraka. They threw one of the organizers on the ground. They put Baraka handcuffs and put it in an unmarked car. ”
In a statement, the Ministry of Internal Security said that the legislators had not asked for a visit to the establishment, unlike the accounts of the witnesses. The ministry said that, as a bus transporting detainees entering the establishment, “a group of demonstrators, including two members of the American House of Representatives, stormed the door and burst into the detention center.”
The assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, was cited in the press release as the appellant “beyond a bizarre political blow” and saying that he endangered the security of agents and detainees.
“Congress members are not above the law and cannot illegally enter detention establishments. If these members had asked for a visit, we would have facilitated a visit to the establishment,” said McLaughlin.
In the video of the altercation shared with the Associated Press, a federal official in a jacket with the logo of internal security surveys can be understood in Baraka that he could not join a visit to the establishment because “you are not a member of the congress”.
Several ice agents, some carrying facial covers, surrounded Baraka and others on the public side of the door. While the demonstrators shouted, “shame”, Baraka was brought back by the handcuffed security door.
