Third Circuit denies New Jersey congresswoman immunity amid ICE assault charges

Representative LaMonica McIver faces 17 years in prison following a May 2025 altercation outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey.PHILADELPHIA (CN) — A Third Circuit panel declined to grant sitting U.S. Representative LaMonica McIver immunity for purportedly striking immigration officers in a May 2025 scuffle outside an immigration detention center.Representing New Jersey, McIver faces three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officers amid a May 2025 oversight visit of the Delaney Hall immigration facility in Newark.McIver and two other Democratic legislators stood inside the facility’s gates as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka attempted to join them. When federal officials pushed beyond the facility and into a crowd to arrest Baraka on trespassing charges, McIver and her cohorts encircled the mayor, attempting to halt the arrest and repeatedly making physical contact with the officers.Baraka was eventually pulled from the crowd and arrested, although his charges were ultimately dropped.However, McIver’s purported contact with the officers landed her three of her own federal charges; she faces up to 17 years in prison.While McIver pleaded not guilty and claimed the charges constitute political intimidation, a New Jersey federal judge denied her motions to dismiss.During oral argument in front of a Third Circuit panel, McIver argued the speech or debate clause — a constitutional clause granting lawmakers immunity for legislative actions — broadly shields her against litigation for her conduct during the Delaney Hall visit.U.S. Circuit Judges Cindy K. Chung, a Joe Biden appointee, and Stephanos Bibas, a Donald Trump appointee, disagreed in their majority ruling, finding McIver’s charged conduct nonlegislative and unprotected.“The speech or debate clause does not provide a blanket protection over all things in any way related to the legislative process,” Chung wrote. “Congresswoman McIver’s physical contact with Victim-1 was not integral to the deliberative and communicative processes by which members participate in committee and House proceedings — namely, to her inspection of Delaney Hall.”“Like the acts charged in count one, the acts of pushing past and forcibly striking someone are unambiguously nonlegislative,” Chung added. “They are not integral to the legislative process.”Not every member of the appeals panel viewed the conduct so clear-cut, however. Dissenting in part, U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro — a Bill Clinton appointee — called into question the validity of McIver’s second charge, which related to contact McIver asserts was made to try to re-enter Delaney Hall for the oversight visit.That contact, Ambro argued, was ambiguously legislative, as it was plausibly necessary for McIver to conduct her visit.“When an executive branch official prevents a [Congress member] from entering a [Department of Homeland Security] facility, she is denied effective access to an oversight inspection, the investigative tool federal law supplies members in this context,” Ambro wrote.“On Congresswoman McIver’s telling, the contact was calculated to get around [the official] for her to access the facility, and her access to the facility depended on circumventing him somehow,” Ambro added.Furthermore, Ambro suggested the court should allow McIver to pursue additional evidence as to whether she is being selectively prosecuted for intimidatory purposes.“Potentially retaliatory prosecutions of sitting members of Congress are exceedingly rare,” Ambro wrote. “But when they do occur, the constitutional foundation of our government is at risk. … The majority chooses not to recognize these cases as extraordinary. Real harm results from that choice.”McIver expressed her disapproval of the majority ruling in a press release Wednesday.“To protect the people, their elected representatives must be authorized to conduct oversight of the executive branch without fear of retaliation,” McIver said. “Today’s decision chills that authority and emboldens the Trump administration to continue persecuting our most vulnerable communities, those who try to defend them, and anyone who dares hold the president or his lackeys accountable.”“I will not fold to this administration,” McIver added. “We are exploring every possible option.”Department of Justice representatives could not be reached for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads