At a hearing on Wednesday, McIver pleaded guilty. During a May 9 congressional oversight visit to an immigrant detention center in New Jersey, she is accused of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with federal officials.
“They won’t bother me,” I said. She remarked outside the Newark courthouse, “They won’t stop me from doing my job.”
Democratic lawmakers have previously been threatened with arrest and detention for immigration-related issues by the Trump administration.
However, McIver and her supporters have emphasized that members of Congress are entitled to inspect immigration facilities.
Democrats have also referred to these accusations as a baseless attempt to deter criticism and oversight of the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement strategy.
The third misdemeanor charge, which can result in a maximum sentence of one year in prison, is a maximum sentence for McIver on two of the three counts, which have an eight-year maximum sentence. November 10 is the start of a trial.
Alina Habba, a temporary US attorney who had previously represented the president as a personal attorney in his court cases during the time he served two terms, charged McIver.
A video from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) video shows McIver surrounded by agitated protesters and police in New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention facility. Although it’s not clear whether this was intentional, her elbow does seem to protrude into an officer.
She is accused of “slammed” an agent and trying to grab him, according to the criminal complaint against her.
Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, was also detained during the demonstration on trespassing-related charges that were later dropped. He claims that Habba was persecuted for what he perceives as malicious behavior.
On Wednesday, Baraka and McIver spoke and stated that the Trump administration was using law enforcement as an “appendage of their ideology to begin hammer us.”
In the US House of Representatives, McIver is one of the 12 members of the Congress who represent New Jersey. However, other Democratic officials have argued against immigration policies with the Trump administration.
After protests erupted in Los Angeles over immigration raids, Trump made a public mutter about arresting California governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
Trump remarked to his border czar Tom Homan, who had suggested making the possibility of these arrests, that “I would do it if I were Tom”. It’s fantastic, in my opinion.
Then, after being forced to the ground, federal agents handcuffed and temporarily detained California’s Senator Alex Padilla on June 12 during a press conference dedicated to the protests.
Padilla had interjected the session to pose a question to the speaker, Kristi Noem, DHS Secretary. Despite a video of the incident demonstrating this clearly on the video, DHS later claimed Padilla had not identified himself.
Additionally, the senator claimed that he had “lunged” toward Noem, a claim he refuted. According to Padilla, his actions were a result of “his duty to carry out Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations.”
Although federal law permits members of Congress to inspect immigrant detention facilities and are not prohibited from entering, DHS issued guidelines earlier this month that stated the agency has complete discretion over who enters immigration enforcement field offices.
Source: Aljazeera
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