Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who evaded federal charges following his arrest May 9 at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in the city, compared federal immigration authorities to slave catchers during a campaign rally last month, video exclusively obtained by The Post shows.
“People are talking about how difficult it is to live in New Jersey. Well, it’s been difficult for us for a long time,” the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful said April 13 in Willingboro, adding that “black folks” have “come from a whole lot of undocumented people.”
“And if they knew you didn’t have your papers, you going back to the plantation,” he said. “They have people chasing, catching you. It wasn’t called ICE then.”
Baraka was one of several Democratic politicians — including Newark City Councilmember Kenyatta Stewart as well as Garden State Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver — who protested the reopening of the Delaney Hall ICE facility.
While the congresspeople said they were invited inside, the feds said Baraka trespassed and was later “taken into custody.”
Acting New Jersey US Attorney Alina Habba chose not to press charges against the mayor — but slapped McIver with criminal charges for allegedly “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” during the fracas.
“I have persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she unfortunately declined,” Habba said Monday. “No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise.”
The prosecutor added that after “extensive consideration,” she decided to dismiss Baraka’s violations “for the sake of moving forward” and added that the mayor would be able “to tour Delaney Hall with her” in the future.
Video of the encounter at the ICE center, which Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin described as a “bizarre political stunt,” showed McIver shouting and trying to elbow her way past agents at the security checkpoint.
Baraka, who polls show is lagging well behind front-runner Mikie Sherrill in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, has claimed that Delaney Hall lacks the necessary permits to operate.
At the April rally, Baraka also appeared to criticize the Trump administration’s attempts to overturn birthright citizenship, declaring that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment was passed so “that everybody benefits, from all over the world.”
“In fact, the 14th Amendment exists because you was being chased, because you was undocumented, because your citizenship was in question,” Baraka told supporters.
“We passed the 14th Amendment that everybody benefits from — all over the world,” he said. “Didn’t know these couple of million ex-slaves would be able to become legislators and help pass the 14th Amendment, ratify it, so that now the whole world can benefit from these naturalized citizens of the United States.”
“This man tries to disrupt that and undermine that and attack that,” he added in reference to Trump, who has argued that the 14th Amendment’s proclamation that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” should not apply to children of illegal immigrants and those who practice so-called “birth tourism.”
Reps for Baraka’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
