Newark mayor denies trespassing at immigration detention center following arrest

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Saturday denied trespassing at a new federal immigration detention center during a confrontation that led to his arrest while the Democrat was at the facility with three members of Congress.

Baraka, who has been protesting the center’s opening this week, was released around 8 p.m. Friday after spending several hours in custody. He was accused of trespassing and ignoring warnings to leave the Delaney Hall facility.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for public affairs with the Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview with CNN on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing, and the department also released more video of the confrontation. McLaughlin also accused Baraka, who is seeking his party's nomination for governor, of playing “political games."

“I'm shocked by all the lies that were told here,” Baraka said, who said he had been invited there for a press conference. “No one else arrested, I was invited in, then they arrested me on the sidewalk.”

Baraka, who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration. He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.

Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka trespassed at the detention facility, which is run by private prison operator Geo Group.

Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law.”

Video of the incident showed that Baraka was arrested after returning to the public side of the gate to the facility.

Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, in attempting to enter the facility.

When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.

“There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka in handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the lawmakers had not asked for a tour of Delaney Hall, which the agency said it would have facilitated. The department said that as a bus carrying detainees was entering in the afternoon “a group of protesters, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

Ned Cooper, a spokesperson for Watson Coleman, said the three lawmakers went there unannounced because they planned to inspect it, not take a scheduled tour.

“Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not ‘storm’ the detention center,” Watson Coleman said in a statement. “The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn’t even correctly count the number of Representatives present. We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident.”

In video of the altercation shared with The Associated Press, a federal official in a jacket with the logo of Homeland Security Investigations can be heard telling Baraka he could not enter the facility because “you are not a Congress member.”

Baraka then left the secure area, rejoining protesters on the public side of the gate. Video showed him speaking through the gate to a man in a suit, who said: “They’re talking about coming back to arrest you.”

“I’m not on their property. They can’t come out on the street and arrest me,” Baraka replied.

Minutes later several ICE agents, some wearing face coverings, surrounded him and others on the public side. As protesters cried out, “Shame,” Baraka was dragged back through the gate in handcuffs.

Rep. Menendez said in a statement that as members of Congress, they have the legal right to carry out oversight at DHS facilities without prior notice and have done so twice already this year. But on Friday, “Throughout every step of this visit, ICE attempted to intimidate everyone involved and impede our ability to conduct oversight.”

In an interview Saturday with MSNBC, Baraka recounted being put in a cell, getting his fingerprints taken and being the subject of a mug shot. He said he would continue to try to gain entry to the detention facility. “We don’t know what’s going on in there,” said Baraka, who has a court date scheduled for Thursday.

The two-story building is next to a county prison formerly operated as a halfway house.

In February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to run the detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, in an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.

The announcement was part of President Donald Trump’s plans to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from a budget of about 41,000 beds this year.

Baraka sued Geo soon after the deal was announced.

Geo touted the Delaney Hall contract during an earnings call with shareholders Wednesday, with CEO David Donahue saying it was expected to generate more than $60 million a year in revenue. He said the facility began the intake process May 1.

Hall said the activation of the center and another in Michigan would increase capacity under contract with ICE from around 20,000 beds to around 23,000.

DHS said in its statement that the facility has the proper permits and inspections have been cleared.

Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.

Protestors shout "Let him out" to demand the release of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after his arrest while protesting outside an ICE detention prison, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J, (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Protestors demand the release of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after his arrest at an ICE detention prison, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J, (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Amina Baraka, mother of Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, hugs Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., outside of an ICE office after her son's arrest, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Rep. LaMonica McIver, center, demands the release of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after his arrest while protesting outside an ICE detention prison, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J, (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., speaks with an officer demanding she be let into the ICE Detention office after the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

The discount grocery chain Aldi is expanding rapidly and plans to open more than 180 U.S. stores this year as more Americans skip nights out at restaurants and cook at home due to anxiety over the nation's economy.

The chain, with U.S. operations based outside of Chicago, went on an expansion tear soon after inflation began to spike in 2021 and opened a record number of new stores last year.

Food inflation has slowed, but it was still up 2.4% last year, according to U.S. data, and has soared about 25% since the pandemic. On Tuesday, the U.S. Labor Department said that grocery prices jumped 0.7% in December from the previous month, and that price hikes accelerated faster in 2025 than they had in the previous two years.

Last month beef and veal prices climbed 1% from November, and are up 16.4% from last year. Coffee prices increased 1.9% in a month and are up almost 20% over a year. Egg prices dropped 8.2% in December, continuing to fall after surging last year after a bird flu outbreak.

Trump's message on inflation during his presidential campaign and his promises to lower prices immediately if elected have rankled some Americans who feel it is not a priority for the administration after all.

The vast majority of U.S. adults say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries and electricity in recent months, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Aldi has sought to snap up market share as more families trade down, meaning they are changing where they shop to cut costs.

Americans are dropping trusted name brands for cheaper store-brands and swapping out the places they've shopped for years in favor of discount or thrift stores. It's been a boon for national bargain stores chains like Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

That shift had begun before President Donald Trump’s trade war began, but appears to have accelerated over the past year.

Aldi said in 2024 that it planned to open 800 new stores by 2028 as inflation worries spread. It announced plans to open a record 225 locations last year in the U.S.

Aldi said Tuesday that it will add new distribution centers in Florida, Arizona, and Colorado and is still committed to investing $9 billion in the U.S. through 2028. The company is also looking to open more than 50 stores in Colorado within the next five years and plans to double its Las Vegas store count by 2030.

The expansion will give Aldi almost 2,800 stores by the end of the year, which gets its closer to its goal of 3,200 stores by 2028.

Traditional grocers are under pressure from bargain chains, massive retailers like Walmart, and also relatively new players like Amazon.com. In December, Amazon said same-day perishable grocery delivery had been expanded to more than 2,300 cities and towns, and the online giant said it has more expansion plans for this year.

FILE - An Aldi's Food Market in Salem, N.H on June 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)