Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said Friday on Fox News that Democrats “stormed” the gates of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in New Jersey housing MS-13 gang members.
ICE agents arrested Democrat Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after he attempted to join three other Democrat congressional lawmakers, reportedly for a scheduled tour of the Delaney Hall facility, according to NBC News. While joining Fox host Will Cain on “The Will Cain Show,” McLaughlin said the Democrats attempted to “get” individuals “out of the facility” as a bus full of detainees tried to get through the gate.
“There’s been for days protests outside of this ICE facility, Delaney Detention Hall, which was open just in May. So it’s very recent. It houses MS-13 gang members. It houses rapists, child predators, an MS-13 gang member, even a suspected terrorist. So these are really the worst of the worst in this facility,” McLaughlin said. “The fact that the Democrats are trying to get these individuals out of the facility. To set the scene, a bus full of detainees tried to get through the gate.”
“These Democrat politicians and protesters stormed that gate and got to the first security checkpoint. So when you’re seeing any of these people being restrained, it’s because they illegally broke into this facility,” McLaughlin added. “If a civilian tries to break into a detention facility, they will be physically restrained. Members of Congress also have to follow the law. Had they asked to take a tour of that facility, we would have happily facilitated that for them. You heard them themselves saying that the facility was in good shape.”
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Democrat New Jersey Reps. Rob Menendez Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver visited the Delaney Detention Hall in Newark and were held up at the facility’s first checkpoint inside, according to Fox News. However, as the lawmakers were seen outside the facility standing with protesters, the Democrats, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), rushed to get inside once the gates opened for the detention bus.
Cain said the Supreme Court and Constitution inform the scope of “power of oversight for congressmen” but added that video footage of the Democrats appears to show them “interfering” with executive authority.
“That is not congressional oversight to break and enter into a facility with security precautions. They put law enforcement at risk, and they actually put the detainees at risk,” McLaughlin said. “So to say that it’s congressional oversight is laughable. Again, we would have facilitated that tour and happily. And, eventually, they did take a tour even after they broke and entered that facility.”
Despite the call out from DHS, spokespersons for both McIver and Coleman pushed back on the characterization of having “stormed” the facility.
“I don’t think that’s a fair characterization. They’re here doing their jobs,” McIver’s spokesperson Hanna Rumsey told Axios. Coleman’s office told the outlet that people “arrived at Delaney Hall today at about 1PM to exercise their oversight authority as prescribed by law. After a period of explaining the law to the officials at the site they were escorted in.”
Since January, Democrats have repeatedly pushed back on the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal migrants in the country, with some recently taking taxpayer-funded trips to El Salvador to visit illegal migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March and has alleged ties to MS-13.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”The Will Cain Show”)
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