Newark’s mayor was arrested at an immigration detention center. Here’s what to know

An immigration detention center in New Jersey is at the center of tensions between three congressional Democrats and the Trump administration after the arrest of Newark’s mayor set off a scrum outside the complex.

Federal prosecutors charged Newark Mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing after agents arrested him outside the fence of the Delaney Hall detention center on Friday. The interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey says Baraka, a Democrat who is running for governor, ignored warnings to leave while he was there with three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation at the 1,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

The arrest escalated into a brief but tense confrontation in the parking lot that included the members of Congress and federal agents, some of whom wore masks. Department of Homeland spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin has accused Baraka of playing “political games” and said over the weekend that an investigation is ongoing and that more actions could be taken.

The three members of Congress — Reps. LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr. — have accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor.

Why were members of Congress at the facility?

The representatives have said they went to the facility to inspect it as a matter of congressional oversight.

“We were able to get in, speak to detainees, check out the facilities, and make sure everything was OK there,” Rep. Watson Coleman told CNN in an interview Sunday that also included her two New Jersey colleagues. “We were there almost two hours before the confrontation took place, but ICE kept giving us the run-around and kept saying that they needed to talk to someone else.”

Department of Homeland Security officials have said that lawmakers had not asked for a tour of Delaney Hall and that the agency would have facilitated one. Watson Coleman spokesperson Ned Cooper has said the three lawmakers went there unannounced because they planned to inspect it, not take a scheduled tour.