# LaMonica McIver Democratic **U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 10th district** — Newark and parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties — and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. She is the only sitting member of Congress under federal criminal prosecution arising from a congressional oversight visit, which is why she is on this map. > [!warning] Two different Delaney Hall episodes, a year apart > The facility appears twice in this vault and the two events are routinely conflated. McIver's prosecution comes from a confrontation on **May 9, 2025**, during the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside the gates. The separate week-long crisis recorded at [[Delaney Hall Protests]] — the hunger strike, the pepper-spraying of Senator [[Andy Kim]], 61 arrests — ran **May 25 to June 2, 2026**. McIver was present at the 2026 oversight visit too, but the charges are from 2025. ## The May 2025 incident Federal agents arrested Baraka outside Delaney Hall, a privately operated [[ICE]] detention facility in Newark, during an oversight visit by members of the New Jersey delegation. In the scrum at the security gate, prosecutors say McIver made physical contact with federal officers. She says the government's account omits what the agents did and that she was conducting lawful oversight. The charges against Baraka were dropped; the charges against her were not. ## The prosecution | Date | Development | |---|---| | 2025-05-09 | The confrontation at the Delaney Hall gate during Baraka's arrest | | 2025-06-10 | Federal grand jury **indicts** McIver on three counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers | | 2025-06-25 | Pleads **not guilty** | | 2025-11 | U.S. District Judge **Jamel Semper** denies her motions to dismiss, rejecting her legislative-immunity claim | | 2026-06 | Argument before the Third Circuit | | **2026-08-26** | **Third Circuit, divided panel: two counts proceed, one is remanded** | | 2026-10 | McIver petitions for **rehearing en banc**, extending the appeal | ### What the three counts allege - **Count One** — that she placed herself between Baraka and a Homeland Security Investigations agent, struck the agent with her forearm and tried to restrain him. - **Count Two** — that she pushed past an ICE deportation officer and struck him with both forearms while coming back through the gate. - **Count Three** — a broader charge covering the confrontation over a longer span, including conduct inside the gate. ### The Third Circuit ruling Judge **Cindy Chung** wrote for the majority. The holdings: - **Counts One and Two go to trial.** The Speech or Debate Clause does not reach the physical acts alleged. The court distinguished *entering* the facility — part of the inspection, and protected — from the alleged contact, which it held was not a legislative act. - **Count Three is remanded** to Semper, to decide whether it sweeps in protected legislative acts and, if so, whether it survives without them. - **Selective and vindictive prosecution claims cannot be reviewed before trial.** The majority found no jurisdiction, which means she can only raise them after a conviction — a sequencing point that matters a great deal if the prosecution is in fact selective. - **Presidential immunity does not extend to members of Congress.** The court rejected the argument that *Trump v. United States* reaches legislators. Judge **Thomas Ambro** agreed on Count One but dissented on Count Two, arguing the trial court should first determine whether the contact was deliberate or incidental to protected oversight. He would also have allowed discovery on the selective-prosecution claims. No trial date has been set. ## Why it matters here The Speech or Debate Clause exists so that the executive cannot use criminal process to punish legislative oversight. This case tests the seam in it: the clause protects the *inspection* but, on the Third Circuit's reading, not the physical friction that occurs when the executive branch physically blocks the inspection. That gap is controllable by the party doing the blocking — if agents meet an oversight visit at the gate, any contact becomes prosecutable conduct outside the clause's protection. The procedural holding compounds it. Her claim that she was singled out for prosecution is precisely the claim that cannot be heard until after she has stood trial. She is also running for re-election while under indictment, against Republican Carmen Bucco. ## See Also - [[Delaney Hall Protests]] — the separate May–June 2026 crisis at the same facility - [[Andy Kim]] — pepper-sprayed during the 2026 oversight visit - [[ICE]] — operator of the facility through a private contractor - [[Trump Retribution Ecosystem]] — the pattern this prosecution sits inside