Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Sues Alina Habba Over ICE Arrest

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has sued acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba, alleging that his arrest during a May visit to an ICE detention center in his city was politically motivated. 

Baraka was arrested on May 9 outside of the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. At the time, Baraka was accompanying a congressional delegation conducting authorized oversight at the facility, but they mayor was denied entry. After Baraka exited the detention center and joined a gaggle of protesters on public property, ICE agents arrested him and brought him back into Delaney Hall. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was later charged with assaulting an ICE agent amid the chaos of Baraka’s arrest, in what McIver called an attempt to “mischaracterize and distort” her actions. Later that month, Habba’s office moved to dismiss the charges against Baraka, and was reprimanded by the case judge for abusing the detention power in what amounted to a hasty stunt. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge André Espinos wrote to Habba upon the dismissal of the case that “the apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate, to carefully gather facts, and to thoughtfully consider the implications of your actions before wielding your immense power. Your Office must operate with a higher standard than that.” 

Such a debacle was unsurprising, and not the first time Habba — who has no past experience as a prosecutor — had been admonished for sloppy legal practices in front of a judge. The acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey made a name for herself as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, and represented him in a slew of high profile criminal cases in the interim between his presidential terms, including Trump’s civil sexual assault liability case brought by author E. Jean Carroll. During proceedings in Trump v. Caroll, Judge Lewis Kaplan repeatedly reprimanded Habba for violating the rules of his courtroom as a member of Trump’s defense team. Trump appointed Habba to the New Jersey prosecutorial post after several months serving as a legal counselor to the president. 

Following Baraka’s arrest in May, Habba claimed that the mayor had been arrested because he had “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center.” 

“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state.  He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW,” Habba added. 

In a Tuesday lawsuit, Baraka argued that he had been allowed into the facility by security employees of GEO Group — the company that owns the detention center — and was later told by Ricky Patel, a Department of Homeland Security agent, that he needed to leave, and that after some back and forth he complied. Patel is listed alongside Habba as a defendant on Baraka’s lawsuit.

“At 2:44 PM, five minutes after Mayor Baraka left the GEO Group property, approximately 20 DHS agents, many armed and masked, descended on the Mayor and members of Congress without any attempt to calm fears or ensure peace,” the lawsuit says. 

“Egged on by Defendant Patel, who ordered the DHS agents to ‘take him down’ […] the agents pushed, shoved and assaulted the Mayor’s security team and members of Congress before violently pulling Mayor Baraka’s arms and arresting him without probable cause,” the filing added. 

Baraka was detained for several hours, photographed for a mugshot, and later released. The lawsuit argues that Habba and Patel “conspired, with others, to effectuate the arrest 

premised upon a knowingly false affidavit,” claiming the mayor trespassed on the facility when he had been allowed in by security staff. 

The lawsuit also alleges that after video emerged affirming that “Defendants Habba and Patel had lied, falsely arrested, and maliciously prosecuted Mayor Baraka, Defendant Habba threatened the Mayor with more false charges, claiming that she would charge him with resisting arrest if he did not agree to give up his right to sue for attorneys’ fees. He refused.” 

The mayor is demanding compensatory damages, punitive damages, as well as compensation for his attorneys fees throughout the whole ordeal. If what the judge who dismissed the case against him had to say is anything to go by, Baraka’s chances in court look incredibly optimistic.