(NewsNation) — U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver spoke out on Wednesday after pleading not guilty to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center during a congressional oversight visit at the facility.
Earlier this month, McIver was indicted on three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with federal officials.
“I pleaded not guilty because I’m not guilty,” McIver said. “We will fight this. At the end of the day, this is all about political intimidation.”
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Back in May, McIver visited Newark’s Delaney Hall, a privately owned detention center that Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses. A two-minute video released by the Department of Homeland Security showed McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s arrest on the other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting.
McIver and uniformed officials went through the gate, and she joined others shouting that they should circle the mayor. She was in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police.”
“Congress had the right to hold these agencies accountable,” McIver said. “And that is what we went to Delaney Hall for. We didn’t go there to protest. We went there to make sure the facility was up to par, and the detainees there were getting due process.”
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McIver’s indictment was the latest development in a legal-political drama that has seen President Donald Trump’s administration take Democratic officials to court amid his ongoing immigration crackdown.
“She is crystal clear that she will not back down as leaders across this country are targeted for speaking up,” said Hanna Rumsey, a spokesperson for McIver. “These charges have always been about politics and Rep. McIver will not be deterred from doing the work the people of New Jersey elected her to do. The Congresswoman will not fold.”
