A New Jersey Mayor’s Arrest At Ice Facility Fires Up Democrats From New York To Chicago

NEWARK, New Jersey — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s Friday arrest fired up liberal Democrats in and outside of New Jersey, turning his hours in federal custody into a political moment for progressives and the region’s immigration activists while boosting the mayor’s national profile as he runs for governor.

“Free Ras Baraka! Free Ras Baraka!” protesters chanted for hours outside the federal facility where Baraka was held Friday. He’d been arrested earlier that day at another protest outside an immigration detention center on a trespassing charge.

By the time he was released that night, a wave of support had formed following his arrest, which came after armed federal officers got involved in a scrum with three members of Congress who were seeking to tour a new Trump administration Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark, Delaney Hall.

At a time when the administration is defying judicial orders and flying migrants to other countries, the arrest of the city’s mayor represented a new escalation. It seemed to engage a segment of Democrats who have so far struggled to effectively push back against President Donald Trump’s crackdown.

But it seems certain to boost Baraka’s simple-sounding but hard-to-do plan to become New Jersey’s next governor by turning out people who don’t usually show up to vote, namely Black voters.

As word spread that Baraka was in custody, Democrats from across the region gathered outside the field office to lead chants and give speeches to scores of immigrant rights activists and Baraka supporters, including the mayor’s elderly mother.

On social media, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate — Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer — backed up Baraka. The mayor of Chicago, who said he was inspired by Baraka early in his career, called for his immediate release.

Teresa Ruiz, the majority leader in the New Jersey Senate, along with other lawmakers from in and around Newark, took turns Friday with a mic in a crowd that kept growing despite rain showers.

“Due process is not part of an existing language in this country right now by people who are attempting to rewrite constitutions and history,” Ruiz said.

By evening, two candidates for mayor of New York City — Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and city comptroller Brad Lander — had both crossed the Hudson River to lead chants as the field office became a sort of pilgrimage.

“When they start arresting mayors on the streets of their own city, ain’t no one gonna be safe,” Lander said, before leading protesters in a version of the song “Go Down Moses.”

“We have had a mayor who has told us the only way to deal with Donald Trump is through collaboration,” Mamdani said when he got there, referring to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who on Friday had met with Trump.

Baraka was already known beyond Newark for his spoken-word poetry that made an appearance during Beyonce’s recent tour and for years ago being the teacher talking about love on the seminal album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” But now he’s the center of the latest controversy over not just immigration but use of executive powers. His rivals in the June 10 primary seemed to be trying to capture some of the lightning in a bottle, to mixed success.

The New Jersey Education Association, whose president, Sean Spiller, is running for governor, put out an “URGENT ALERT” to all its members to show up at Delaney Hall on Saturday morning. Few did.

Instead, Spiller and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who is also running for governor, walked up to the facility together the morning after Baraka’s arrest and spoke with reporters at the gates condemning the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the decision to arrest Baraka.

Gottheimer said it was not the first time he and Spiller spoke out against the facility, which is operated by a private company, adding to the controversy around it among Democrats.

“We're not here as competitors,” Gottheimer said, acknowledging it was his first time at the facility in person. “We're here as protectors of democracy.”

When asked if he would be willing to be arrested by staying at the facility, Gottheimer said “sure.”

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), the front-runner in the Democratic primary, made a separate visit to the facility Saturday as well, according to News12 New Jersey.

“I’m glad they’re making the most of this,” Baraka said about his rivals Saturday

Neither Gottheimer nor Sherrill were part of the Friday visit that kicked everything off — those members were Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver. The Department of Homeland Security has since floated the idea of arresting members of the trio on assault or other charges.

Whether the energy around Baraka’s arrest is enough to matter on Election Day is unclear.

Plus, it certainly could hurt him among moderate voters, given that Republicans and conservative media have portrayed what happened Friday as the storming of a federal facility, which has been disputed by elected officials present and videos of the encounter.

Dan Bishop, the deputy director of the Trump administration’s office of budget and management, said on social media that Baraka’s actions on Friday were “Worse than 9/11,” the series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people, including about 750 from New Jersey.

Some Republicans also portrayed the original protest outside Delaney Hall as a stunt, while others used language comparing it to the Jan 6 protests at the Capitol.

Had everything gone according to plan, though, Baraka’s Friday event would have probably been wrapped up in time for a late lunch. He and three members of the New Jersey congressional delegation had been seeking a tour of Delaney Hall and then planned to hold a 1:45 p.m. press conference.

Instead, the members, who have the right to visit federal facilities for oversight visits, were kept waiting well past 2 p.m. Then federal authorities arrested Baraka after he had complied with a request to leave a fenced-in area of the facility that he said he’d been invited onto. Baraka’s attorneys said in a weekend statement that the trespass charge “would normally be handled by way of a ticket.” It’s unlikely that, had Baraka been issued such a ticket, there would have been an outpouring of national support for him.

The interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, said in a post on X that the mayor “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings” to leave.

Only after Baraka's arrest did the members of Congress receive a brief tour — they have a right to do oversight visits to federal facilities. Even after all that, one of the Democrats said conditions at the facility appeared to be relatively good.

But the news cycle was not about the facility’s conditions anymore, it was about Baraka’s arrest. All three members quickly left Delaney Hall for a nearby field office where federal agents had taken Baraka and where the other protest was forming.

On Saturday afternoon, there was another protest in New York City organized by the New York Working Families Party, the New York Immigration Coalition and other left-leaning groups. There, protesters held a sign more than 10 feet wide that read, “Would’ve fought the Nazis? Now’s your chance.”

In New York, Baraka served as a rhetorical foil for Democrats hoping to replace Adams and defeat front-runner Andrew Cuomo, the former governor.

“This is a moment when it is essential that New Yorkers, that New Jerseyans, that Americans, stand up for everyone's rights,” Lander said.

Mamdani told the crowd he’d gone to Newark the day before to support Baraka “because he's had all of our backs, and now we have to have his back.”