'I would do it again': Newark mayor arrested by federal agents speaks out after release
CNN host Kaitlan Collins (L) and Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka (R) on CNN on May 9, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D), who was detained Friday afternoon at a newly reopened immigrant detention center in Newark, said he did not break any law and was there to help Democratic members of Congress with a planned press conference.
During an appearance on CNN moments after his release from detention, Baraka said he didn't come to the immigration facility to protest: "They targeted me and came after me specifically and arrested me," he told CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
When asked about interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba's accusation that he ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security investigations to leave the facility, he said: "She doesn't know what happened. Clearly, that is not the context of what happened. I was there for over an hour in that space, and nobody ever told me to move."
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"Not an officer from ICE, not any of the security guards. Nobody told me to leave that place. Somebody from Homeland Security came in the end and began to escalate the situation, and we wound up being where we are today. And that's frankly the extent of it," Baraka added.
The mayor said he was exercising his right and duty as an elected official, "supporting our congresspeople, preparing for a press conference that was supposed to happen there."
When asked if had any regrets about what happened, he said he didn't: "I went down there to support my congresspeople, my congresswoman from my district, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, as well, who is like a mother to us here. And Congressman Menendez, who's also from our district. I went down there to support them in the press conference, and I would do it again," he said.
At the time of his arrest, Baraka was visiting Delaney Hall, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility operated by the private prison company GEO Group, alongside three of the state’s congressional Democrats in New Jersey's largest city.
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Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J), announced on the social platform X Friday afternoon that she, along with two other members of the New Jersey congressional delegation, was “exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves” the conditions at the ICE facility.
Coleman, who was present with Baraka when he was detained, criticized his arrest during an interview on MSNBC:
"This is un-American. This breaks my heart that in the United States of America, as imperfect as it has been, there has never been this disrespect for individual rights, for positions or for justice in general," she stated.
The facility is the first immigrant detention center to open since President Donald Trump took office again in January. It began accepting detainees on May 1 amid ongoing legal disputes over its operation.
The mayor, who is running to be the state's governor, had a heated exchange with security personnel, following which he was taken into custody by men dressed in blue jackets marked "police."
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Sen. Cory Brooker (D-N.J) wrote on X following the arrest: "As mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka has a responsibility to ensure that facilities operating in the city are adhering to laws that protect the safety and wellbeing of occupants and residents. This incident is disturbing, unnecessary and indicative of tactics that are undermining the safety and security of our communities, not adding to it."
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