Ras Baraka denies charge against him a day after he spent several hours in police custody.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has denied trespassing at a new United States federal immigration detention centre following his arrest and release.
Baraka, who has been protesting the centre’s opening this week, denied his trespassing charge on Saturday, a day after he spent several hours in police custody.
The mayor, who is seeking the Democratic party’s nomination for governor, has gone head-to-head with the Trump administration over undocumented immigration, pushing back against the opening of the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 1,000-bed detention facility, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.
Officials accused Baraka of trespassing and ignoring warnings to leave the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey.
“I’m shocked by all the lies that were told here,” he said, adding he had been invited there for a news conference.
“No one else [was] arrested, I was invited in, then they arrested me on the sidewalk.”
In an interview Saturday with MSNBC, Baraka recounted being put in a cell, having his fingerprints taken and being the subject of a mug shot.
He said he would continue to try to gain entry to the detention facility. “We don’t know what’s going on in there,” said Baraka. He has a court date scheduled for Thursday.
Alina Habba, interim US Attorney for New Jersey, said on the social media platform X that Baraka trespassed at the detention facility, which is run by private prison operator Geo Group.
Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law”.
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for public affairs with the US Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview with CNN on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing and that more video from the scene would soon be released.
She also accused Baraka of playing “political games”.
Baraka was taken into custody by the ICE agents in a scuffle at the facility.
He had joined several lawmakers at the detention centre for a demonstration on Friday.
Video of the incident showed that Baraka was arrested after returning to the public side of the gate to the facility.
Local elected officials swiftly condemned the federal agents’ actions, with the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, writing on X that he was “outraged by the unjust arrest”.
