Newark Mayor Arrested for ICE 'Trespassing'
Plus: Air traffic controller issues, tariff deal between U.S. and China, "murder insurance," and more...
Whose jurisdiction is it anyway? If you ask Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility operated by the private prison company GEO Group may have been violating city laws, having failed to obtain required permits and a certificate of occupancy. Baraka showed up with city inspectors this past Tuesday, returning the next day too.
If you ask Trump administration officials, lawmakers were "assaulting" ICE officers, even "body slamming a female ICE officer," according to Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
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Here's some very unclear footage of a scrum outside the facility:
A mob (including 3 members of Congress) assaulting our ICE agents as they try to break into an ICE detention facility. pic.twitter.com/UflU9QpAZU
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) May 9, 2025
"We want them to follow our rules, follow our laws," Baraka (who is running for governor, trying to carve out a left-wing lane) told The New York Times on Tuesday. The facility, he added, had also barred city fire and health inspectors on Monday. So Baraka and three U.S. representatives showed up, along with immigration rights protesters, trying to pressure ICE and the GEO Group into allowing inspections to happen.
The facility, Delaney Hall, is right next to Newark Liberty International Airport, and has variously served as a prison, migrant detention facility, and halfway house.
Baraka was arrested on Friday, and McLaughlin says arresting more lawmakers "is definitely on the table."
"The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody," declared Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey in a statement. "NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW."
It's possible that Baraka is playing a political game, trying to curry favor with voters who despise the Trump administration's agenda. Indeed, I'm open to the idea that it's political stunts all the way down. But it would be good to have greater transparency about what goes on at federal migrant detention facilities. You can believe the Trump administration has a mandate to undo Biden-era border policies and to conduct large numbers of deportations, and still think that cruel, inhumane treatment of migrants—if that is what's happening at Delaney Hall—is not part of that mandate.
Scenes from New York: Sorry to have so much Newark today—like, way more Newark than anyone could ever want—but Newark Airport has been dealing with disturbing radar outages that jeopardize the safety of planes in the air. The most recent one occurred just before 4 a.m. this past Friday and lasted for 90 seconds. A similar 90-second outage happened on Monday, April 28, during peak transit hours. Some of the air traffic controllers "have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages" said the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), which just compounds the staffing shortage troubles that are already plaguing the airport. United CEO Scott Kirby characterized this as them "walk[ing] off the job." (United is Newark's largest carrier.)
"In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed—resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans," Kirby said, following the initial radar failure. "Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job. Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it's now clear—and the FAA tells us—that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead."
Being unable to track planes' locations and communicate with pilots for that long in such a crowded airspace makes it seem like only a matter of time before a horrible accident takes place.
QUICK HITS
- "The US and China will temporarily lower tariffs on each other's products in a dramatic ratcheting down of trade tensions that buys the world's two largest economies three months to work toward a broader agreement," reports Bloomberg. "The combined 145% US levies on most Chinese imports will be reduced to 30% including the rate tied to fentanyl by May 14, while the 125% Chinese duties on US goods will drop to 10%, according to a joint statement and from officials in a briefing Monday in Geneva." The reductions will last for 90 days but talks will be continuing, so it's not clear what the final deal will look like. (China will also remove seven rare earths from its export control list, which was a huge priority of the American delegation, as multiple industries could have faced substantial disruptions.)
- The Trump administration is going to bring the first group of white Afrikaner refugees from South Africa into the United States on Monday," per The New York Times. This is very odd refugee policy, given that the administration has not been keen on letting very many folks in.
- Interesting piece from The Wall Street Journal: "Did You Shoot Somebody in Self-Defense? There's an Insurance Policy for That." (Archive.ph link if you're paywalled out.)
- The new world of dining dilemmas for those on Ozempic.
- Do we regret voting for Donald Trump? Me, Dave Smith, J.D. Tuccille on our dirty deeds, 100 days later.
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