Dem Rep McIver expected to make first court appearance after Newark incident

New Jersey Rep LaMonica McIver will make her first court appearance Wednesday after being charged with assaulting two federal agents at an immigrant detention facility in Newark earlier this month McIver was there with two other members of Congress on May to conduct what they claimed were their congressionally-mandated oversight duties as was Newark Mayor Ras Baraka who was subsequently arrested following the development but later had his charges dropped The Democrat will now appear in front of a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey at a m and be read her rights and charges The judge will then decide her bail package I think the charges are absurd You know it's ridiculous I was there to do my job along with my other colleagues We have done this before This is our obligation to do It's in our job description to have oversight over a facility And the entire situation was escalated by ICE McIver declared during an appearance on CNN Tuesday DEMARCATION CZAR TOM HOMAN SAYS DEMOCRAT LAMONICA MCIVER BROKE THE LAW SHOULD BE CHARGED FOR ICE CLASH They caused the confrontation Homeland came and caused this chaos that we see It was a very tense situation but it could have been easily not it could've easily not happened They had every opportunity to not allow this to happen It was very unnecessary And it just once again we were there to do our jobs she added And if I'm going to be charged with a crime for doing my job it just speaks to where we're headed in this country and what we are dealing with as leaders and as congress members you know here in this country A charging document cites bodycam footage from law enforcement officers who recorded events as McIver and two other New Jersey lawmakers stormed the ICE facility Prosecutors say the first officer McIver allegedly assaulted was a Homeland Precaution Investigations agent and the second was an ICE agent The Justice Department accuses McIver of having slammed her forearm into the body of a uniformed HSI agent and reached out and tried to restrain the agent by forcibly grabbing him The charging document also states that McIver pushed an ICE officer used her forearms to forcibly strike the agent DEMOCRAT LAWMAKER CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING FEDERAL AGENTS LAUGHS OFF FUNDRAISING QUESTIONS McIver rejected the charges in a society announcement arguing they are purely political Earlier this month I joined my colleagues to inspect the remedy of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district she wrote We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities as members of Congress have done numerous times before and our visit should have been peaceful and short Instead ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka Onlookers notified The Associated Press that the arrest happened after Baraka attempted to join McIver and New Jersey Reps Robert Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman when entering the facility When federal representatives denied Baraka access an argument then broke out the AP broadcasted citing an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice Prosecutors mentioned McIver helped create a human shield and blocked agents from handcuffing Baraka after he ignored numerous warnings to leave the property and was explained he would be arrested Fox News Digital s Anders Hagstrom and Alec Schemmel contributed to this review