Blue state political battle intensifies after Dem mayor's arrest at ICE facility: 'Outraged'

Political tensions remain high in New Jersey following the Delaney Hall clash between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials earlier this month, which led to the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on a trespassing charge weeks ahead of a competitive Democratic gubernatorial primary he is in.

Protesters outside the federal courtroom in Newark, rallying in support of Baraka, said the issue spans much bigger than just the Delaney Hall incident.

"The rest of the country should know that we should stand up against fascism," rapper and activist Mysonne, who is a co-founder of Until Freedom, told Fox News Digital outside the courthouse on Thursday.

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The incident came under federal investigation by interim United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba, and three members of congress are also facing both scrutiny and praise for their role.

Baraka said on Thursday, following his status conference, that he was targeted.

"I was the only person arrested. That's right. You know, I was the only person identified. I was the only person, you know, they put in a cell," he said.

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Delaney Hall is an ICE detention facility privately operated by the GEO Group. The city of Newark has argued that GEO Group does not have a valid certificate of occupancy, whereas the group has said it is valid and that they are following city laws.

"Anybody who cares about government accountability or free speech or the rights of Congress members and mayors to know what's going on in their communities should be outraged by what happened to Mayor Baraka," Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said.

However, Republicans in the state have had a critical view of what went down, especially since stopping illegal immigration continues to be a top priority of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump won nearly 46% of the vote in the Garden State in 2024, coming just short of flipping what is typically considered a blue state.

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"Shame on the Democrats, particularly the mayor of Newark," Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli told Fox News Digital. He said issues the city faces, ranging from the airport, crime, to education, are things that need to be a larger focus for the mayor.

"He's showing up to a detention center where we're detaining illegals who've committed crimes. I don't understand what it is exactly we're protesting," he said.

"When the border is as porous as it was under the Joe Biden administration, we're all border states. And so we should not be encouraging illegal immigration with sanctuary cities or us being a sanctuary state," he continued.

A spokesperson for Baraka's campaign fired back at Ciattarelli's comments, telling Fox News Digital that he does not "recognize the Newark Jack Ciattarelli is talking about."

"The high school graduation rate is 86%. Their top-performing schools rival those in Millburn or Summit," Kabir Moss, Baraka's spokesperson, said. "When Baraka became Mayor, there were over 100 homicides a year - today, that number is 37. Violent crime is at its lowest point since John F. Kennedy was President - around the same time Jack’s family was being subsidized to leave cities and build the suburbs."

"The mayor was not trespassing, he was let in by the GEO Group," he continued. "He didn’t go there to get arrested, he went to join a press conference with the congress members. But if Jack Ciattarelli can’t recognize the Constitutional crisis we’re in - where due process is being denied on American soil - then he’s not fit to be Governor."

The gubernatorial race to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to be highly competitive in the November general election, as Cook Political Report ranks the race as "Lean Democratic." The primary election is June 10.