Ras J. Baraka and city officials have been trying to close the leased lockup. Three members of Congress from New Jersey participated in the demonstration.
Federal officials arrested the mayor of Newark on Friday while he and three members of Congress were protesting at a new immigration detention facility that is expected to play a central role in President Trump’s mass deportation effort.
The mayor, Ras J. Baraka, was taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, his aides said.
Federal officials described the protest as a “stunt,” and Alina Habba, a lawyer for Mr. Trump whom he had named as New Jersey’s interim U.S. attorney, announced Mr. Baraka’s arrest in a social media post.
Mr. Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center,” Ms. Habba wrote. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Representative Rob Menendez, a Democrat who was at the federal detention facility when Mr. Baraka was taken into custody, said that ICE agents had “put their hands on” the two other members of Congress who were there, Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver.
“They feel no restraint on what they should be doing, and that was shown in broad daylight today,” Mr. Menendez said at a news conference shortly after the mayor’s arrest.
