Newark mayor returns to immigration detention center days after trespassing arrest

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka briefly returned Tuesday to the gates of the federal immigration detention center where he was arrested last week on trespassing charges.

Baraka, a Democrat running for governor in the June 10 primary, was turned away from Delaney Hall, the facility where he was arrested Friday. He departed and stayed about a half hour away from the building, according to NJ.com.

Witnesses said the arrest last week came after Baraka attempted to join three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, in attempting to enter the facility.

Baraka, an outspoken opponent of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and vocal opponent of the facility’s opening, faces a court hearing on the trespassing charge on Thursday. He has denied the trespassing charge

It wasn’t immediately clear how Baraka’s appearance at the gates Tuesday differed from Friday when he was arrested. He denied being on the detention facility’s property, which is run by private prison operator Geo Group. Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka trespassed there again.

In video of the Friday altercation shared with The Associated Press, a federal official in a jacket with the logo of the Homeland Security Investigations can be heard telling Baraka he could not enter the facility because “you are not a Congress member.”

Baraka then left the secure area, rejoining protesters on the public side of the gate. Video showed him speaking through the gate to a man in a suit, who said: “They’re talking about coming back to arrest you.”

“I’m not on their property. They can’t come out on the street and arrest me,” Baraka replied.

Minutes later several ICE agents, some wearing face coverings, surrounded him and others on the public side. As protesters cried out, “Shame,” Baraka was dragged back through the gate in handcuffs.

Delaney Hall is a two-story building next to a county prison and formerly operated as a halfway house. In February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to run the detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, in an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.