Mayor Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, arrested at immigration detention
center he has been protesting
[May 10, 2025]
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ and CLAUDIA LAUER
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday at a new federal immigration
detention center he has been protesting against and was held in custody
for several hours.
Baraka was released around 8 p.m. after being accused of trespassing and
ignoring warnings to leave the Delaney Hall facility. Stepping out of an
SUV with flashing emergency lights, he told waiting supporters: “The
reality is this: I didn't do anything wrong.”
The mayor said he could not speak about his case, citing a promise he
made to lawyers and the judge. But he voiced full-throated support for
everyone living in his community, immigrants included.
“All of us here, every last one of us, I don’t care what background you
come from, what nationality, what language you speak,” Baraka said, “at
some point we have to stop these people from causing division between
us.”
Baraka, a Democrat who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil
Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over
illegal immigration.
He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of
the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to
open because of building permit issues.
Linda Baraka, the mayor’s wife, accused the federal government of
targeting her husband.
“They didn’t arrest anyone else. They didn’t ask anyone else to leave.
They wanted to make an example out of the mayor,” she said, adding that
she had not been allowed to see him.
Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social
platform X that Baraka trespassed at the detention facility, which is
run by private prison operator Geo Group.
Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law.”
Video of the incident showed that Baraka was arrested after returning to
the public side of the gate to the facility.
Witnesses describe a heated argument
Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join three
members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez,
LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, in attempting to enter the
facility.
When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out,
according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for
Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public
side of the gates.
“There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers
swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put
Baraka in handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the
lawmakers had not asked for a tour of Delaney Hall, which the agency
said it would have facilitated. The department said that as a bus
carrying detainees was entering in the afternoon “a group of protestors,
including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the
gate and broke into the detention facility.”
Watson Coleman spokesperson Ned Cooper said the three lawmakers went
there unannounced because they planned to inspect it, not take a
scheduled tour.
“They arrived, explained to the guards and the officials at the facility
that they were there to exercise their oversight authority,” he said,
adding that they were allowed to enter and inspect the center sometime
between 3 and 4 p.m.
Watson Coleman later said the DHS statement inaccurately characterized
the visit.
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Protestors shout "Let him out" to demand the release of Newark Mayor
Ras Baraka after his arrest while protesting outside an ICE
detention prison, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J, (AP
Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
“Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not ‘storm’ the
detention center,” she wrote. “The author of that 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.”
Video shows the mayor standing on the public side of the gate
In video of the altercation shared with The Associated Press, a
federal official in a jacket with the logo of the Homeland Security
Investigations can be heard telling Baraka he could not enter the
facility because “you are not a congress member.”
Baraka then left the secure area, rejoining protesters on the public
side of the gate. Video showed him speaking through the gate to a
man in a suit, who said: “They’re talking about coming back to
arrest you.”
“I’m not on their property. They can’t come out on the street and
arrest me,” Baraka replied.
Minutes later several ICE agents, some wearing face coverings,
surrounded him and others on the public side. As protesters cried
out, “Shame,” Baraka was dragged back through the gate in handcuffs.
Several civil rights and immigration reform advocates, as well as
government officials, condemned Baraka’s arrest. New Jersey Attorney
General Matthew J. Platkin, whose office is defending a state law
barring private immigration detention facilities, criticized the
arrest during a seemingly peaceful protest and said no state or
local law enforcement agencies were involved.
Rep. Menendez said in a statement that as members of Congress, they
have the legal right to carry out oversight at DHS facilities
without prior notice and have done so twice already this year. But
on Friday, “Throughout every step of this visit, ICE attempted to
intimidate everyone involved and impede our ability to conduct
oversight.”
The detention center
The two-story building next to a county prison formerly operated as
a halfway house.
In February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to
run the detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, in
an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.
The announcement was part of President Donald Trump’s plans to
sharply increase detention beds nationwide from a budget of about
41,000 beds this year.
Baraka sued Geo soon after the deal was announced.
Geo touted the Delaney Hall contract during an earnings call with
shareholders Wednesday, with CEO David Donahue saying it was
expected to generate more than $60 million a year in revenue. He
said the facility began the intake process May 1.
Hall said the activation of the center and another in Michigan would
increase capacity under contract with ICE from around 20,000 beds to
around 23,000.
DHS said in its statement that the facility has the proper permits
and inspections have been cleared.
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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.
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