“We actually have body camera footage of these members of Congress assaulting these ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer.”
The Trump administration is weighing arrests for three Democratic members of Congress who were involved in the New Jersey Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility incident that took place on Friday. The Department of Homeland Security said that the members of Congress assaulted and slammed ICE agents, but the Democrat House members have denied the claims.
During a CNN interview on Saturday morning, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that "there will likely be more arrests coming" as a result of the incident after the lawmakers reportedly rushed past security to gain access to the ICE facility.
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View on XThe three Democratic Congressmen who were involved in the incident included Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ). McIver was seen on video pushing against security agents at the facility.
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View on X"We actually have body camera footage of these members of Congress assaulting these ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer," McLaughlin added. She said that there is an "ongoing investigation" into the matter and that arresting the members of Congress is "definitely on the table."
A spokesman for Watson Coleman responded to the Trump administration, "Threatening to arrest Members of Congress for exercising their lawful oversight authority is another example of this administration abusing its power to try to intimidate anyone to stands up to them."
The spokesman added that Watson Coleman’s office looked over the camera footage and said that it proves "ICE agents put their hands on Members of Congress ... it also proves that DHS has been lying about this incident."
"We're honestly surprised they released this footage given that it so wholly contradicts their claims. Nobody was 'body slammed' nobody 'assaulted' any agents, and this footage confirms that,” the spokesman claimed.
McIver, who was seen on video pushing against the ICE agents, claimed in a press conference on Friday that she was "assaulted by multiple ICE officers while regional directors of ICE watched it happen. Nobody offered an apology or said anything to me about what occurred out here."
Although the Democrats were protesting the reopening of the facility, and said that ICE did not gain the proper sanitation and safety permits, once the lawmakers looked around the building, Watson Coleman's office admitted that the conditions for the illegal immigrants being held at the facility "aren't bad ... it's clean, they're feeding them."
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