Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka has been released after being arrested by federal officials at a protest outside an immigration detention center in the city.
Baraka was held in custody for five hours on Friday before he was let go around 8 p.m., The New York Times reported. “The reality is this: I didn’t do anything wrong,” he told around 200 supporters waiting for him, per CNN.
Baraka, a Democrat running for governor of New Jersey, has objected to the opening of the 1,000-bed facility that is part of the Trump administration’s plans to ramp up the deportation of immigrants. Baraka and city officials have said the privately-run center is operating without a valid certificate of occupancy. Federal officials and the company running the facility said it has the proper permits.
Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, posted on social media that Baraka trespassed on the property’s secure area and didn’t listen when federal personnel told him to leave.
He was trying to enter the facility with three Democratic members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation — Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman — who said they had the right to inspect the facility.
A Homeland Security official told Baraka he couldn’t enter the facility because he wasn’t a member of Congress, according to a video shared with The Associated Press. Baraka then joined a group of protesters at a public area outside the front entrance gates, where he was arrested by masked federal agents wearing military fatigues, The Times reported.
“What’s happening now in this country, everybody should be scared of,” Baraka said after his release, per The Times. “They’re using the courts. They’re using everything else to justify what they’re doing.”
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