On Monday night, the federal government hit Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with charges after she and fellow Democrats attempted to force their way into an ICE detention facility in Newark a couple of weeks ago.
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Predictably, House Democratic leadership issued a long-winded statement trying to downplay the incident, and it’s every bit as ridiculous as you’d expect. But the real story here is that the Trump administration offered McIver a plea deal, but she rejected it.
“Well, the Justice Department and Alina Habba wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do, and I was not going to do that, once again. I came there to do my job and conduct an oversight visit, and they wanted me to say something different, and I’m not doing that. I’m not going to roll over and stop doing my job because they don’t want me to, or they want to neglect the fact that we needed to be in there to see what was going on and that detention center, and so, absolutely, no, I was not going to do that,” McIver told CNN on Tuesday. “[I’m] definitely always open to conversations, but I’m not going to admit to something that I did not do, and no one’s going to stop me from serving the people in New Jersey.”
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released bodycam footage that left little doubt that she committed assault.
In her Tuesday interview, McIver pushed back on claims she was violent, noting that after the scuffle, she and two other New Jersey lawmakers were still given a tour of the facility.
“We were there to conduct an oversight visit, which, after all of this — the chaos, Kate — they gave us a tour. All of this, ‘We broke in, we assaulted people,’ all of these things that Habba is saying and Republicans are saying, but they gave us a tour and allowed us to go in and tour the facility and speak to detainees,” she said.
McIver added their main goal was to assess conditions in the facility, noting immigrants held there were not always able to reach their attorneys.
“The reason why we were there is because we wanted to make sure this facility was up to par, that it was clean, that it was safe, and that the detainees there were given due process, that they were able to use the phone, that they were able to speak to their legal representation,” she said, “which we found out was not happening.”
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I suspect that McIver and the Democratic Party will try to turn the charges into political theater, hoping to spin it into another anti-Trump narrative. But that move could backfire badly.
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“Representative LaMonica McIver assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1),” U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba said in a statement. “That conduct cannot be overlooked by the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey, and it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties.”
“I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative Melver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined,” she continued. “No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise. It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.”
🚨 Today my office has charged Congresswoman McIver with violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1) for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/TV00uwRtKq
— US Attorney Habba (@USAttyHabba) May 19, 2025
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There’s no question that the Trump administration is taking this seriously, and if McIver thought this would be an easy distraction or a PR stunt, she may come to regret it.
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