'Smile and wave, boys': New videos show ICE agent's taunt as mayor arrested
Rep. LaMonica McIver’s patience was wearing thin.
It was May 9, and McIver and two of her House colleagues were waiting to be escorted into Delaney Hall, a new migrant jail in Newark. The three Democrats had shown up there that day for an unannounced visit, but first they were told to wait inside a vestibule off the detention center’s parking lot.
The longer they waited, the more frustrated McIver became.
“I mean, we’re not just going to keep sitting here all day while they play games. Like, I’m not in the mood for that,” she said.
Moments later, she sparred with a jail administrator.
“Makes no sense,” she said. “We go to all these other locations and we never have a problem when we get here, with this drama, till we get here to Delaney Hall. Man, you know it’s some bullcrap. Makes no sense.”
About an hour later, McIver would scuffle with federal agents outside Delaney Hall as they arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D), and her actions during the melee would subsequently be used to indict her on charges that she impeded Baraka’s arrest and assaulted federal officers who were detaining him. She has pleaded not guilty.
The interactions described above are seen in more than two hours of new video footage released this week by federal court officials, footage making up mostly body-worn cameras of federal agents that McIver’s legal team has cited in their push to have her indictment thrown out.
The footage reveals a bit more about what happened that day outside Delaney Hall, a chaotic episode that led to allegations President Donald Trump’s administration is using the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute the president’s political enemies and any other critics of Trump’s mass deportation effort. Federal prosecutors deny that their prosecution of McIver is political in nature.
On May 9, McIver referenced Trump as she urged jail administrators to let her and her colleagues into the facility, the videos show.
“Trust me, Trump is not going to be the president forever,” McIver said.
“I hope not,” one replied.
The videos were submitted as exhibits to McIver’s motions to dismiss the case.
‘So they forced themselves in?’
After the May 9 melee, the Trump administration claimed the members of Congress and protestors had illegally entered the jail’s property.
“Today, as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center, a group of protestors, including two members of US Congress, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote on social media.
The new video includes silent security footage showing McIver with Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman on the public side of the gate that allows vehicles onto the Delaney Hall property. The three said they were there to inspect the jail, which had recently begun housing migrants despite Newark officials’ claims that it had not been properly inspected.
When the gate opened to allow a car through, the three members of Congress walked onto the property and had a brief conversation with someone on the private side of the gate. Protestors who had been gathered outside the property remained on the public side of the gate.
McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman were then escorted to the vestibule to wait. Video timestamps indicate this was around 1:25 p.m.
About 10 minutes later, two unidentified men discussed their arrival.
“So they forced themselves in, right?” one said.
“They moved the GEO guard aside, they pushed them aside. She said, ‘Don’t touch me,’” the other said.
Moments earlier, Baraka and members of his team had been allowed onto the private side of the gate. Homeland Security Special Agent Ricky Patel and an unidentified supervisor discussed Baraka with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“She wants to grab him,” the supervisor said. It’s not clear who the “she” is.
“How did the mayor get in the gate?” Patel asked the agents.
A masked ICE agent said he thought Geo Group staff let Baraka in.
“I think it was to let the car out, right?” the supervisor asked.
“Not 100% sure,” one agent replied.
Another officer said the guard “definitely opened the gate.”
“That’s the info I got — they said that a car went out, and then they jumped in,” the supervisor said.
‘Less lethal’
At about 2:30 p.m., McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman exited the vestibule, appearing to sense increased commotion closer to the jail gate.
Meanwhile, agents headed toward a car that was parked near the gate. One of the agents grabbed a weapon before the other officer suggested he take a different one.
“Less lethal,” the officer said. “Just have it ready. Just one ready.”
In the background, the crowd of protestors had gotten louder, shouting “ICE out of Jersey” and “history will judge you.”
An officer asked if they should have their guns out.
“Eh, it got tense there for a second and the crowd was getting hype, so I want it ready,” another said.
Another officer is heard in the background saying, “Smile and wave, boys.”
‘At the direction of the deputy attorney general’
Patel at about 2:40 p.m. had a phone conversation with an unidentified person. He told agents to prepare to arrest Baraka, who moments before had walked back onto the public side of the jail gate.
“I’m going to take him right now,” Patel said, still on the phone. “OK. OK. OK. Even though he stepped out, I’m going to put him in cuffs.”
Patel then addressed a group of agents.
“Guys, listen to me, we’re going to walk out of the gates, I’m going to place the mayor in handcuffs, OK. We’re arresting the mayor right now, per the deputy attorney general of the United States,” he said.
Agents headed toward the crowd holding pepper ball guns, and a scuffle ensued as protestors, including McIver, circled the mayor.
“Don’t touch us,” McIver shouted as Patel, holding handcuffs, reached for Baraka.
“Mr. Mayor, you’re under arrest,” Patel said.
It took officers about a minute to remove Baraka from the swarm of people and place him in handcuffs. The crowd grew agitated, shoving each other as some protestors fell to the ground and shouted at officers as Baraka was taken away. This is when prosecutors say McIver assaulted federal agents.
“Back up or I’ll shoot!” one agent shouted to protestors.
‘You will pay’
McIver was livid, and Menendez shouted as a federal agent told him to relax.
“You escalated the situation!” Menendez said. “Don’t tell — he can’t talk to her like that. He cannot. He cannot talk to her like that.”
McIver and an unidentified woman are facing one another, shouting after McIver said an officer put his hands on her.
“I’m filing a complaint,” she said. “You don’t dare talk to a congresswoman like that, and you’re gonna dare to put your hands on me? You will pay.”
Baraka was charged with federal trespassing. Ten days later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said they were dropping that charge and instead charging McIver with assault. Her trial is tentatively scheduled to begin in November.