Newark mayor Ras Baraka arrested, Alina Habba says no one is above the law

Newark mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody by the federal police at an ICE detention center in New Jersey which he and his team went to visit. Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, said Baraka "committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center."

"He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody," a post on X read.

The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this…

— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) May 9, 2025

What has happened in Newark?

Baraka wanted to close down the detention center as he claimed the ICE prison in Newark opened without permission from the city. Representatives LaMonica McIver, Rob Menendez, and Bonnie Watson Coleman were scheduled to visit the facility on Friday afternoon as part of what they called an oversight visit. "We’re at Delaney Hall, an ICE prison in Newark that opened without permission from the city & in violation of local ordinances," Rep. Coleman wrote in a post on X.

Ras J Baraka, a Democrat running to replace term-limited Governor Phil Murphy, has taken a strong stand against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. He has fiercely opposed the construction and operation of a 1,000-bed ICE detention center at Delaney Hall, citing missing city permits as grounds for blocking its opening. The two-story facility, located beside an Essex County jail, previously served as a halfway house until February 2025, when ICE and the GEO Group announced a 15-year, $1 billion contract to convert it into a detention center. Baraka promptly filed a lawsuit against GEO Group following the announcement.