New York
3 Lawmakers Involved in Newark ICE Protest Could Be Arrested, DHS Says
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security suggested on Saturday that three Democratic members of Congress might face assault charges after a confrontation outside an immigration detention facility in Newark during the arrest of the city’s mayor, even as new details emerged that appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s account of the surrounding events.
The three lawmakers — Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver of New Jersey — were inside the facility on Friday for what they described as a congressional oversight visit, which they have the right to conduct under federal law. The facility, Delaney Hall, received its first detainees last week and is eventually expected to hold as many as 1,000 migrants at a time.
Soon after the legislators left the building on Friday afternoon, Newark’s mayor, Ras J. Baraka, was arrested by the head of Homeland Security Investigations in a brief but volatile clash that involved a team of masked federal agents wearing military fatigues and the three lawmakers. He was then taken to a separate federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city and released five hours later.
Precisely what led to Mr. Baraka’s arrest on federal trespassing charges, in a public area outside a facility that is owned by a private prison company, remains unclear. But much of what unfolded was recorded by journalists, as well as by cameras worn by law enforcement officials and videos taken by activists protesting nearby.
Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokeswoman, told CNN on Saturday that a body camera video showed “members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer.”
The episode was under investigation, she said, and charges against the three lawmakers were “definitely on the table.”
But videos the Trump administration released to Fox News appeared to be far from conclusive, and accounts of the confrontation from witnesses and the members of Congress differ in significant ways from the government narrative.
On Friday, after Mr. Baraka’s arrest, Ms. Watson Coleman, 80, described being “manhandled” by agents who were attempting to arrest the mayor, who was at the center of a large group of aides and supporters in front of the gates to Delaney Hall.
“There was just consistently, and across the board — especially with the folks in uniform — no respect for who we were and no respect for the mayor,” she said Saturday on MSNBC.
In February, the Trump administration entered into a 15-year, $1 billion contract with GEO Group to turn Delaney Hall into a large detention center as ICE rushed to expand its detention capacity nationwide to meet President Trump’s mass deportation goals.
Newark officials have since argued in federal court that GEO Group, one of the country’s largest private prison companies, is operating without a valid certificate of occupancy. After Delaney Hall began housing detainees last week, Mr. Baraka, a Democrat who is running for governor, began showing up regularly and requesting that he and fire officials be allowed to enter and inspect the facility.
Each time, the facility’s personnel turned them away and fire officials issued tickets for code violations.
Federal officials and a GEO spokesman said the mayor had ignored established processes for requesting entry. They have also said that the facility had all the required permits, and have described the mayor’s repeated visits as a political stunt.
On Friday, the dispute escalated significantly.
That morning, Mr. Baraka said he stopped by Delaney Hall to request entry, was denied and left to take one of his children to school. He returned hours later for a news conference that the three lawmakers had planned to hold after touring Delaney Hall.
A security guard opened Delaney Hall’s locked front gate and allowed Mr. Baraka to enter, but barred him from joining the congressional representatives inside, Newark officials said.
“If I was on that property, I was invited there,” Mr. Baraka said Saturday in Newark. “Somebody allowed me. I didn’t climb the fence, I didn’t kick the door down.”
He and several aides waited for more than an hour inside the perimeter of the detention center before he was asked to leave, according to Mr. Baraka and two of his aides.
By that point, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Watson Coleman and Ms. McIver had left the building and were standing near the mayor, according to a video taken by Viri Martinez, an immigration activist who witnessed the arrest.
After several requests that he leave, Mr. Baraka complied, according to two members of his group and video recordings.
“Guy told me to leave, I left. I’m gone,” Mr. Baraka said Saturday.
However, more than a dozen federal agents went out through the gate and arrested him anyway, placing him in handcuffs and leading him away.
Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, has said that Mr. Baraka was arrested after he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself.”
Ms. McLaughlin described the chaotic scene as a “mob,” with the lawmakers, their aides and federal law enforcement officers jostling just outside the facility’s gate.
“We weren’t trying to start anything,” Ms. Watson Coleman said on MSNBC. “We weren’t trying to do anything. We were trying to protect the mayor from what we thought was an unlawful arrest.”
Footage from a body-worn camera shared by Fox News shows the legislators and a scrum of officers outside the facility’s fence. At one point, Ms. McIver appears to make contact with a law enforcement officer in fatigues and a face mask.
A second video also shared by Fox News captures a verbal disagreement between Ms. McIver and several law enforcement officers. Ms. McIver, who is standing with her back against a car and is surrounded by officers in tactical gear, can be heard saying, “Ma’am, he just assaulted me.”
In the video, she and Ms. Watson Coleman walk a few paces away before Ms. McIver stops and turns to face the officers.
“You can’t talk to a congresswoman like that,” she says. “You will pay.”
Mr. Baraka has pushed back against the government’s characterization of the moments before and after he was taken into custody.
“This is all fabrication,” Mr. Baraka told reporters on Saturday. “They get on the media and they lie and lie and lie and lie.”
He said the roughly five hours he spent in custody, before a federal magistrate judge ordered him to be released, were “humiliating.”
By Saturday, Mr. Baraka’s arrest had become a local political flashpoint.
Two of Mr. Baraka’s Democratic opponents in New Jersey’s race for governor — Sean Spiller, the president of the New Jersey Education Association, and Representative Josh Gottheimer — showed up early Saturday at Delaney Hall and spoke to reporters. The three other Democrats running for governor — Representative Mikie Sherrill; Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, N.J.; and Steve Sweeney, a former State Senate president — also condemned Mr. Baraka’s arrest in statements.
“This is not who we are as a country, certainly not who we are as a state,” Mr. Spiller said at the detention center. “Because right now, we know that folks are scared.”
Mr. Gottheimer added that he and Mr. Spiller were not there as competitors in the June 10 primary.
“We’re here as protectors of democracy,” Mr. Gottheimer said. “We all have to stand up and say to Donald Trump, ‘I don’t think so.’”
Mr. Baraka seemed amused by the candidates’ robust expressions of solidarity.
“I’m glad that they are, you know, making the most of this,” he said with a chuckle.
Across the Hudson River, several New York City lawmakers and Democratic mayoral candidates joined more than 100 protesters at a rally in Lower Manhattan. Speakers praised Mr. Baraka and condemned the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, for working with the Trump administration.
“When they come for the mayors, it’s already pretty bad,” said Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller who is running for mayor.
Another candidate for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who represents Queens in the State Assembly, also spoke.
“What Mayor Baraka has told us,” he said, “is you cannot fight extremism with moderation.”
Mark Bonamo and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
Every week since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has published stories by, and for, New Yorkers of all ages and eras (no matter where they live now): anecdotes and memories, quirky encounters and overheard snippets that reveal the city’s spirit and heart.
For the past four years, we’ve asked for your help picking the best Diary entry of the year. Now we’re asking again.
We’ve narrowed the field to the five finalists here. Read them and vote for your favorite. The author of the item that gets the most votes will receive a print of the illustration that accompanied it, signed by the artist, Agnes Lee.
The voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 21. You can change your vote as many times as you’d like until then, but you may only pick one. Choose wisely.
Click “VOTE” to choose your favorite Metropolitan Diary entry of 2025, and come back on Sunday, Dec. 28, to see which one our readers picked as their favorite.
Click “VOTE” to choose your favorite Metropolitan Diary entry of 2025, and come back on Sunday, Dec. 28, to see which one our readers picked as their favorite.
Two Stops
Dear Diary:
It was a drizzly June night in 2001. I was a young magazine editor and had just enjoyed what I thought was a very blissful second date — dinner, drinks, fabulous conversation — with our technology consultant at a restaurant in Manhattan.
I lived in Williamsburg at the time, and my date lived near Murray Hill, so we grabbed a cab and headed south on Second Avenue.
“Just let me out here,” my date said to the cabby at the corner of 25th Street.
We said our goodbyes, quick and shy, knowing that we would see each other at work the next day. I was giddy and probably grinning with happiness and hope.
“Oh boy,” the cabby said, shaking his head as we drove toward Brooklyn. “Very bad.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in horror.
“He doesn’t want you to know exactly where he lives,” the cabby said. “Not a good sign.”
I spent the rest of the cab ride in shock, revisiting every moment of the date.
Happily, it turned out that my instinct about it being a great date was right, and the cabby was wrong. Twenty-four years later, my date that night is my husband, and I know that if your stop is first, it’s polite to get out so the cab can continue in a straight line to the next stop.
Ferry Farewell
Dear Diary:
On a February afternoon, I met my cousins at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Their spouses and several of our very-grown children were there too. I brought Prosecco, a candle, a small speaker to play music, photos and a poem.
We were there to recreate the wedding cruise of my mother, Monica, and my stepfather, Peter. They had gotten married at City Hall in August 1984. She was 61, and he, 71. It was her first marriage, and his fourth.
I was my mother’s witness that day. It was a late-in-life love story, and they were very happy. Peter died in 1996, at 82. My mother died last year. She was 100.
Peter’s ashes had waited a long time, but finally they were mingled with Monica’s. The two of them would ride the ferry a last time and then swirl together in the harbor forever. Cue the candles, bubbly, bagpipes and poems.
Two ferry workers approached us. We knew we were in trouble: Open containers and open flames were not allowed on the ferry.
My cousin’s husband, whispering, told the workers what we were doing and said we would be finished soon.
They walked off, and then returned. They said they had spoken to the captain, and they ushered us to the stern for some privacy. As the cup of ashes flew into the water, the ferry horn sounded two long blasts.
Unacceptable
Dear Diary:
I went to a new bagel store in Brooklyn Heights with my son.
When it was my turn to order, I asked for a cinnamon raisin bagel with whitefish salad and a slice of red onion.
The man behind the counter looked up at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t do that.”
Teresa
Dear Diary:
It was February 2013. With a foot of snow expected, I left work early and drove from New Jersey warily as my wipers squeaked and snow and ice stuck to my windows.
I drove east on the Cross Bronx Expressway, which was tied up worse than usual. Trucks groaned on either side of my rattling Toyota. My fingers were cold. My toes were colder. Got to get home before it really comes down, I thought to myself.
By the time I got home to my little red bungalow a stone’s throw from the Throgs Neck Bridge, the snow was already up to my ankles.
Inside, I took off my gloves, hat, scarf, coat, sweater, pants and snow boots. The bed, still unmade, was inviting me. But first, I checked my messages.
There was one from Teresa, the 92-year-old widow on the corner.
“Call me,” she said, sounding desperate.
I looked toward the warm bed, but … Teresa. There was a storm outside, and she was alone.
On went the pants, the sweater, the coat, the scarf, the boots and the gloves, and then I went out the door.
The snow was six inches deep on the sidewalks, so I tottered on tire tracks in the middle of the street. The wind stung my face. When I got to the end of the block, I pounded on her door.
“Teresa!” I called. No answer. “Teresa!” I called again. I heard the TV blaring. Was she sprawled on the floor?
I went next door and called for Kathy.
“Teresa can’t answer the door,” I said. “Probably fell.”
Kathy had a key. In the corner of her neat living room, Teresa, in pink sweatpants and sweaters, was sitting curled in her armchair, head bent down and The Daily News in her lap.
I snapped off the TV.
Startled, she looked up.
“Kathy! Neal!” she said. “What’s a five-letter word for cabbage?”
Nice Place
Dear Diary:
When I lived in Park Slope over 20 years ago, I once had to call an ambulance because of a sudden, violent case of food poisoning.
Two paramedics, a man and a woman, entered our third-floor walk-up with a portable chair. Strapping me in, the male medic quickly inserted an IV line into my arm.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his partner circling around and admiring the apartment.
“Nice place you’ve got here.” she said. “Do you own it?”
“Yeah,” I muttered, all but unconscious.
Once I was in the ambulance, she returned to her line of inquiry.
“Do you mind me asking how much you paid for your apartment?”
“$155,000,” I croaked.
“Wow! You must have bought during the recession.”
“Yeah” I said.
They dropped me off at Methodist Hospital, where I was tended to by a nurse as I struggled to stay lucid.
At some point, the same medic poked her head into the room with one last question:
“You wouldn’t be wanting to sell any time soon, would you?”
Illustrations by Agnes Lee.
‘Part of the job’
Edwin Guity was at the controls of a southbound D train last December, rolling through the Bronx, when suddenly someone was on the tracks in front of him.
He jammed on the emergency brake, but it was too late. The man had gone under the wheels.
Stumbling over words, Mr. Guity radioed the dispatcher and then did what the rules require of every train operator involved in such an incident. He got out of the cab and went looking for the person he had struck.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Guity said later. “But this is a part of the job.”
He found the man pinned beneath the third car. Paramedics pulled him out, but the man died at the hospital. After that, Mr. Guity wrestled with what to do next.
A 32-year-old who had once lived in a family shelter with his parents, he viewed the job as paying well and offering a rare chance at upward mobility. It also helped cover the costs of his family’s groceries and rent in the three-bedroom apartment they shared in Brooklyn.
But striking the man with the train had shaken him more than perhaps any other experience in his life, and the idea of returning to work left him feeling paralyzed.
Edwin Guity was prescribed exposure therapy after his train struck a man on the tracks.
Hundreds of train operators have found themselves in Mr. Guity’s position over the years.
And for just as long, there has been a path through the state workers’ compensation program to receiving substantive treatment to help them cope. But New York’s train operators say that their employer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has done too little to make them aware of that option.
After Mr. Guity’s incident, no official told him of that type of assistance, he said. Instead, they gave him the option of going back to work right away.
But Mr. Guity was lucky. He had a friend who had been through the same experience and who coached him on getting help — first through a six-week program and then, with the assistance of a lawyer, through an experienced specialist.
The specialist prescribed a six-month exposure therapy program to gradually reintroduce Mr. Guity to the subway.
His first day back at the controls of a passenger train was on Thanksgiving. Once again, he was driving on the D line — the same route he had been traveling on the day of the fatal accident.
M.T.A. representatives insisted that New York train operators involved in strikes are made aware of all options for getting treatment, but they declined to answer specific questions about how the agency ensures that drivers get the help they need.
In an interview, the president of the M.T.A. division that runs the subway, Demetrius Crichlow, said all train operators are fully briefed on the resources available to them during their job orientation.
“I really have faith in our process,” Mr. Crichlow said.
Still, other transit systems — all of which are smaller than New York’s — appear to do a better job of ensuring that operators like Mr. Guity take advantage of the services available to them, according to records and interviews.
A Times analysis shows that the incidents were on the rise in New York City’s system even as they were falling in all other American transit systems.
An Uptick in Subway Strikes
San Francisco’s system provides 24-hour access to licensed therapists through a third-party provider.
Los Angeles proactively reaches out to its operators on a regular basis to remind them of workers’ compensation options and other resources.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has made it a goal to increase engagement with its employee assistance program.
The M.T.A. says it offers some version of most of these services.
But in interviews with more than two dozen subway operators who have been involved in train strikes, only one said he was aware of all those resources, and state records suggest most drivers of trains that strike people are not taking full advantage of them.
“It’s the M.T.A.’s responsibility to assist the employee both mentally and physically after these horrific events occur,” the president of the union that represents New York City transit workers, John V. Chiarello, said in a statement, “but it is a constant struggle trying to get the M.T.A. to do the right thing.”
new video loaded: Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid
transcript
transcript
Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid
Nearly 200 protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving a parking garage in Lower Manhattan on Saturday. The confrontation appeared to prevent a possible ICE raid nearby, and led to violent clashes between the police and protesters.
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[chanting] “ICE out of New York.”
By Jorge Mitssunaga
November 30, 2025
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