Newark Mayor Baraka: My ICE Arrest Was ‘Authoritarian’

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” he was suing New Jersey’s acting Attorney General Alina Habba and a Department of Homeland Security special agent on allegations of false arrest at an ICE detention facility in Newark because it was “egregious” and “authoritarian.”

Baraka said, “You know, putting out information even before I was, you know, processed that I was a criminal. I did something wrong. I disobeyed the law. I’m not above the law. and ultimately, I didn’t break any law, right, I was cuffed or fingerprinted, took pictures of twice, once there and once in court for a class C misdemeanor, which you send summons to people for you don’t lock them up and take their fingerprints.”

He continued, “I think what they’ve done is egregious and it’s authoritarian, and it needs to be pushed back against.”

Baraka added, “The reality is, I didn’t break any law. I was asked to leave the property like he said and guess what I left. There’s a video that shows that I left the property. It’s not even their property. I was allowed on the property by, you know, geo group, which is a private organization that owns that property, but they don’t even have a lease in that property. There’s no government workers in that building whatsoever. They don’t have any claim to that property and trespass is a state offense. It’s not a federal offense. These guys need to find out the law before they begin running their mouth about what what is right and what is wrong.”

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