Meet Rep. LaMonica McIver, the Democrat being prosecuted over encounter outside NJ immigration jail

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges she assaulted officials during an oversight visit to an immigration detention center in May. It’s a rare federal prosecution against a current member of Congress on charges other than corruption or fraud.

Outside court, the congresswoman was defiant, saying the charges won’t stop her from doing her job.

The 39-year-old Newark, New Jersey, native is in her first full term in Congress, and has garnered more attention than many longer-tenured members.

Here’s a closer look at the 10th District Democrat:

‘Still has that fight’

McIver was born in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, and grew up in what Newark Mayor Ras Baraka — who was her elementary school teacher — said was a tough neighborhood. Baraka has become one of her most vocal and highest profile supporter and was in court Wednesday to support her.

Federal immigration officials arrested Baraka outside the Delaney Hall detention center on May 9 on a trespassing charge they later dropped. McIver was seen guarding him in video released from the encounter.

In an interview, he recalled McIver as a smart student whose mother sent her to help with one of his elections, passing out campaign literature. He recalled running unsuccessfully for years before finally getting elected, and said McIver was at his side for much of it.

“She’s the same person in spirit who she was in the fifth and sixth grade,” Baraka said. “She still has that fight in her, that ability and desire, you know, not to be bullied or pushed around and to, you, know, represent herself, her community—she’s still doing that.”

Early years

McIver attended Bloomfield College and Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, where she obtained a master’s degree. She worked in public education, including stints with Newark and Montclair public schools, and in 2018 was elected to the Newark City Council.

She became the council’s president in 2022. A measure lowering the voting age to 16 for school board elections in the city passed under her tenure, among others.

New Jersey state Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz said she forged a bond with McIver during the COVID-19 pandemic when they attended their daughters’ soccer games. They discussed balancing work and life.

“This is a women who loves her family,” Ruiz said. This is woman who loves public office. This is the woman who loves her city, her state and her country.”

A request for an interview or comment sent to McIver’s office was not answered.

Rise to Congress

In 2024 McIver emerged victorious from the Democratic field and won a special election in September after Rep. Donald Payne Jr. died in office. She won a full two-year term in November.

LeRoy Jones, who chairs the state Democratic Party as well as its Essex County counterpart, described her as a rising star. She can “walk with Kings and Queens but still has the common touch,” he said.

In Congress, McIver sponsored legislation to remove a cap on shelter expenses that beneficiaries can claim for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as well as a gun buyback measure aimed at making neighborhoods safer. Neither bill has advanced in the GOP-led House.

The charges

McIver faces three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. If convicted, she could potentially face prison time, though a judge could impose a lesser penalty.

McIver’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, said Wednesday “she pleaded not guilty because she is not guity.”

The charges stem from a congressional oversight visit to the center that McIver and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez undertook that resulted in Baraka’s arrest after officials determined he wasn’t authorized to enter. Members of Congress are authorized by law to conduct visits.

A criminal complaint alleges that she “slammed” her forearm into an agent and then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.

The indictment also says she placed her arms around the mayor to try to stop his arrest and says again that she slammed her forearm into and grabbed an agent.

A nearly two-minute video clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on the other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting. McIver and uniformed officials go through the gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor.

The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer.