U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver (D–N.J.) pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from a heated encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during a May visit to the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark .
Standing before U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper, McIver delivered a firm statement to the court: “Your honor, I plead not guilty.” A trial has been scheduled for November 10. At a press conference outside the courthouse, she emphasized, “They will not intimidate me. They will not stop me from doing my job.”
McIver faces a three-count indictment that accuses her of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with federal officers. Two counts are felonies punishable by up to eight years in prison; the third is a misdemeanor with a maximum of one year.
The charges relate to a congressional oversight visit on May 9 when McIver, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and others entered the privately run, 1,000-bed detention facility. During a chaotic confrontation with ICE officers, a released Department of Homeland Security video shows McIver in close proximity to agents; prosecutors say she used her elbows and forearms, “slamming” into at least one agent and grabbing another. The defense argues that any physical contact was accidental, due to the crowded and tense environment .
Attorney Paul Fishman, McIver’s lawyer and a former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, defended his client, accusing federal agents of escalating a risky situation that McIver simply joined in her oversight capacity.
Also present at the scene were Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, both Democrats, who have criticized the arrests and maintained that McIver acted lawfully under her congressional powers. Those powers were clarified in a 2019 appropriations bill, giving members of Congress the right to inspect immigration facilities without advance notice.
Mayor Baraka, who was briefly arrested and later had charges dropped, is pursuing a lawsuit against Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, calling her prosecution a politically motivated move. A liberal watchdog group, the Campaign for Accountability, has also filed an ethics complaint against Habba for allegedly using her office to target Democrats. Their complaint questions Habba’s impartiality, alleging her prosecutorial decisions were politically driven.
The McIver case is especially notable because it’s uncommon for a sitting member of Congress to be criminally charged for actions other than financial wrongdoing or corruption. It highlights rising tensions between Democrats’ immigration oversight efforts and the Trump-appointed Justice Department’s aggressive approach.
McIver, 39, was elected to the House in a September 2024 special election following the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr., and won a full term in November. Before Congress, she served as president of the Newark City Council (2022–2024) and previously worked in the city’s public schools.
