The mayor of Newark was arrested at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey on Friday.
According to Alina Habba, the US attorney for the state, Mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody for allegedly trespassing and disregarding numerous warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to leave the ICE detention center.
Dramatic footage showed frantic people scrambling outside the gates of the facility, before Baraka being arrested and escorted away by police.
Officers were seen shoving protesters out of the way during the ordeal.
Alina Habba further commented on the incident, stating that the Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was accused of trespassing and failing to heed repeated warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to vacate the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey.
‘He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.’
Recently, Mayor Baraka made an attempt to enter the facility, which he believed was unlawfully holding migrants, in an act of defiance aimed at freeing individuals as the Trump Administration continues its crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Baraka claimed the jail has a contract with the city and cannot be housing migrants inside. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to DailyMail.com that migrants have been housed at the facility for a week.
‘Delaney Hall houses illegal aliens. It is not a family detention facility, nor does it house minors,’ a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
Mayor Ras Baraka is seen being arrested and escorted away by federal agents on Friday
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka speaks to protesters outside of Delaney Hall
The building’s owners, GEO Group, did not receive permits or a valid certificate of occupancy to house 1,000 migrants a day, The New York Times reported.
A GEO Group employee had chained the front gates shut on Monday and fire officials gave them three citations for code violations, the Times said.
‘They’re keeping us out through the gates and the fences and all this other kind of stuff, but we’re going to come down here every day and we’re going to get in one way or the other,’ Baraka told the Times.
‘We want them to follow our rules, follow our laws.’
GEO Group accepted a 15-year $1billion contract with ICE in February, agreeing to hold migrants while they wait for deportation.
Delaney Hall has previously been used as a jail, halfway house, and migrant detention center and is located near the Newark Airport, making it easy to ship migrants back to their native countries.
Baraka claimed the jail has a contract with the city and cannot be housing migrants inside
The elected official has been arrested for tresspassing
The building has not been used in over a year and with the renovations on top of it, the City of Newark claimed the occupancy certificate would be invalid, the Times reported.
GEO Group spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, told The Times that Baraka is ‘more than welcome to enter the facility as long as he follows security protocols like everyone else.’
‘He keeps refusing to do so, presumably in an effort to stage press opportunities to help him in his bid for governor,’ the spokesperson said.
Another spokesperson, Christopher Ferreira, told the Times Baraka’s action was a ‘publicity stunt’.
He said it was an ‘unfortunate example of a politicized campaign by sanctuary city and open-borders politicians in New Jersey to interfere with the federal government’s efforts to arrest, detain and deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens in accordance with established federal law.’
