After being imprisoned at a federal immigration detention facility last month, Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, is suing Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, on the grounds that she violated his constitutional rights and defamed him.
Habba, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, and Ricky J. Patel, a special agent overseeing the Homeland Security investigations section in Newark, were sued by Baraka.
The mayor claims that they infringed upon his Fourth Amendment protections against unfair prosecution and wrongful arrest.
After he and members of Congress tried to enter an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark on May 9 to inquire about the treatment of inmates, Baraka, a Democratic contender for governor, was arrested on trespassing charges. Later, the accusations were withdrawn.
Baraka “ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security” personnel to “remove himself” from the site, according to Habba’s allegations. She subsequently declared that she was dropping the minor case “for the sake of moving forward.”
A security guard at the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, which is operated by the private prison business The GEO Group under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security, is accused in the lawsuit of permitting Baraka to enter the building in order to quell a group of demonstrators outside.
But in the end, Patel instructed the mayor to go and denied that he had been invited there.
The lawsuit claims that approximately 20 homeland security officers, “many armed and masked, descended on the Mayor and members of Congress without any attempt to calm fears or ensure peace,” five minutes after Baraka left the property.
According to the lawsuit, they detained Baraka “without probable cause” after roughly yanking his arms.
Additionally, according to the lawsuit, Habba “issued a false and defamatory statement on her personal social media account” before the mayor was taken from Delaney Hall, claiming that he had trespassed on the property and disregarded repeated orders from DHS authorities to vacate.
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According to Baraka, Habba “acted for political reasons and fulfilled her stated goal of ‘turning New Jersey red’ by instigating and/or authorizing the false arrest of Mayor Baraka, a Democrat.”
“Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas,” the lawsuit noted, quoting Magistrate Judge André Espinosa’s criticism of the U.S. attorney’s office for its treatment of the case. Your commitment is to upholding the law, seeking the truth, and applying the law impartially.
“The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrisome misstep by your Office.,” Espinosa continued.
Following the altercation at the facility, the Justice Department charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., with assaulting, resisting, and obstructing law enforcement authorities. Due to sanctuary policies, the DOJ also filed lawsuits against Paterson, Hoboken, Jersey City, and Newark. Baraka responded by referring to the case as “absurd.”
“We are not standing in the way of public safety,” Baraka stated. “We are upholding the Constitution, providing oversight, and following the laws and guidelines of the State of New Jersey Nothing in our policies prevents law enforcement from doing their jobs. What we refuse to do is turn our city into an arm of federal immigration enforcement, which the courts have already ruled is not our role.”
