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Far-left Newark mayor plays role of martyr after jail release, says he has ‘right to go anywhere in the city’

May 10, 2025 | | Print Article

A trespass charge amidst a protest outside an ICE detention facility found a New Jersey mayor crying victim and claiming authorities “completely violated my rights.”

“I have the right to go anywhere in the city.”

Friday, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka (D) was arrested and later released as he and three members of Congress sought entry into the Delaney Hall Detention Center contracted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of course, that meant a corporate media circuit for the Garden State gubernatorial candidate who lamented being “targeted” to MSNBC’s Jen Psaki.

Appearing on “The Briefing,” Baraka spun his side of the story that contended that neither he nor New Jersey Democratic Reps. LaMonica McIver, Rob Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman had been there to protest when he’d allegedly trespassed on the grounds of the facility which he was in the midst of a legal dispute with over operation permits and inspections.

“I’m the mayor of the city. I have the right to go anywhere in the city,” he told Psaki while claiming, “They charged me, I guess, based on the charge they can find.”

“They obviously targeted me. I wasn’t the only one out there. They came directly to me and tried to arrest me,” the mayor had claimed, “You know, nothing happened for a long, long time … for at least over an hour. And then, you know, after they finally told us to leave, and I told him I was leaving, they came outside the gate and arrested me.”

Baraka had also contended, “We was actually allowed on the property in the first place,” without elaborating as to what side of the fence those alleged permissions had applied to as the MSNBC host referred to the charge as “completely insane” and accused President Donald Trump’s administration of “lying” about the intent of the politicians who had assembled at the facility.

In particular, Psaki had raised comments by acting US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba who had slammed Baraka’s actions on X, writing, “The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”

Meanwhile, as a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Thursday in Newark Federal District Court, the actively campaigning politician had been greeted as a hero upon his release with groups of protesters opposed to the facility — said to be holding illegal aliens that included MS-13 gang members and convicted felons — chanting “Power to the People!”

That reaction stood in stark contrast to views of Baraka on social media, as the mayor was slammed for the “stunt” as much as he was for “playing the victim.”

Kevin Haggerty
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