DHS chief Noem accuses lawmakers of ‘committing felonies’ at Newark ICE facility: ‘They should be censured’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday called out members of Congress for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers during a heated altercation outside a Newark immigration detention center last week.
Noem criticized the lawmakers for defending their actions as a supposed “oversight.” Appearing on ‘Jesse Watters Prime,’ Noem accused the lawmakers of committing criminal behavior.
“This wasn’t oversight. This was committing felonies. This was going out and attacking people who stand up for the rule of law. And it was absolutely horrible,” Noem said.
“I can’t believe they act like this and then they defend it. And then they’re doing these acts of violence to get people out of detention centers that are rapists, that are murderers, that are people that are [from] foreign terrorist organizations that have been out there victimizing our communities in the United States of America,” she went on.
DEM LAWMAKERS DEFEND ‘STORMING’ OF ICE FACILITY, SAY TRUMP ADMIN IS ‘LYING AT ALL LEVELS’
U.S. Reps. Rob Menendez Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver – all New Jersey Democrats – stormed ICE’s Delaney Hall detention facility’s gate in Newark on Friday, demanding they be allowed to conduct an “oversight visit.”
“These members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and the detainees at risk,” a DHS statement to Fox News said. “Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility.”
The three lawmakers were outside the facility with a group of protesters when the gates opened to allow an ICE bus in. The lawmakers then rushed through the gates and past security, DHS said.
“What are they trying to do?” Noem questioned. “Release these people back into the country so that there could be more Laken Rileys? So there can be more Jocelyn Nungarays? I just don’t understand what their point is. They have completely lost their minds.”
She called for the trio to be censured and formally rebuked by the House of Representatives.
“It’s astounding to me that someone would even vote for someone to put them in a place of leadership when they perpetuate something as hypocritical and as criminal as what these individuals did,” she said.
“I hope that the rest of the members of the House of Representatives will hold them accountable,” Noem continued. “They shouldn’t be allowed to be on the committees that they’re on — in fact, one of them (McIver) is supposed to be conducting oversight over ICE and instead she’s assaulting them.”
“They don’t deserve to be in the House,” Noem added. “They should be censured by it.”
In a press conference earlier, Coleman denied the accusations that they were trying to illegally enter the facility and claimed that ICE was “out of control.” McIver said the three lawmakers had waited more than two hours to gain access to the facility to conduct an oversight visit. She said all three of them were also assaulted by ICE personnel.
“There are people who are supposed to be officers, who are supposed to protect us, and they have done none of that,” McIver told reporters. “If they can treat three members of Congress like that, just imagine how they can treat people on the street each and every day, both undocumented and people who are citizens here in this country.”
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McIver doubled down in a post on X, saying that “none of this had to happen.”
“We arrived at Delaney Hall to do our jobs — period,” she wrote. “Instead of facilitating congressional oversight, as they are obligated to do, ICE created chaos.”
Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.