Three New Jersey members of Congress talk to CNN about the scuffle they had with DHS and ICE officers outside a migrant detention center that led to the arrest of the Mayor of Newark on Friday. NJ Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Rob Menendez. REP. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN (D-NJ): We have not heard anything. We have only read what everyone else has read. We have no idea why they would even suggest that, because we didn’t do anything. So, no, we have no idea what they had in mind, other than to create an environment of intimidation just by claiming that perhaps we might be subject to arrest. But there’s no reason for it. Nothing happened, other than the chaos that they created themselves. If anything, we were pushed and shoved and found in a very vulnerable situation for the three of us. We went there to do a legal oversight visit that we’re allowed to do, permitted to do under the law. And ICE delayed us, tried to dissuade us, disregarded us. We were there an hour-and-a-half before the mayor came. And we went out there to see what was happening when the mayor was there. Then the mayor was asked to leave the space. He left the space willingly. And the next thing we know, ICE is going to arrest him. And they arrested him for trespassing on public property, which is absurd. … REP. LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): Absolutely no. I mean, I honestly do not know how to body slam anyone. There’s no video that supports me body- slamming anyone. We — as Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said, we were simply there to do our job, there for an oversight visit. And what you’re watching in a video — and we don’t have all of the bodycam and we hope that all of the bodycam is released. It was a very tense situation. It unfortunately did not have to be like that. They created that confrontation. They created that chaos and then ultimately went to arrest the mayor of the largest city of New Jersey, who is my mayor and my constituent? And it was very difficult to watch that happen. But, absolutely, I did not body-slam anyone. … REP. ROB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): I think there’s a lot of opportunities for DHS, for ICE to de-escalate the situation. They chose not to. There’s three House members there, the mayor of the largest city. As you can see in all the video, and this is important, they had over 20 armed ICE, HSI officers. They were heavily armed. They were — their faces were covered and they were wearing no identification. So this is who they chose to have come engage with the mayor of Newark and three elected members of the House of Representatives. As Congresswoman Watson Coleman said, the mayor had gone on to public property. He had de-escalated the situation. We were all on the other side of the fence, on the — let’s just call it the private side of the fence. The mayor was on the public side. Someone there from HSI got a call. And what happened next was, they reengaged with the mayor. They went on to the public side. And that’s where they arrested him. So there were so many instances where this could have all been de-escalated, but it was squarely in HSI, ICE’s court. They chose not to. They made this a violent scene that we were unfortunately all a part of. And it’s something that should really shock all Americans.
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