U.S. attorneys said Baraka had “committed a trespass” in the protest facility, which he believed was unauthorized without proper permission.
During protests at the Immigration Detention Center, rights groups and democracy officials condemned the arrest of the mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
Mayor Ras Baraka attended several MPs at the detention center called Delaney Hall on Friday.
He has been one of the people who have protested the center of the recently opened 1,000 beds for weeks, and critics see it as a key link in President Donald Trump's massive deportation efforts.
Baraka tried to enter the facility with U.S. Congressmen on Friday but he was denied entry, the person in attendance said.
A video reviewed by the Associated Press showed federal officials wearing jackets with the logo of the Homeland Security Investigation Department told Baraka that he could not visit the facility because "you are not a member of Congress."
Baraka then left the safe area and rejoined the protesters on the public surface of the central gate. The video shows him talking to a man in a suit at the door. "They are talking about coming back to arrest you," the man said.
"I'm not on their property. They can't arrest me in the street," Baraka replied.
A moment later, several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, some wearing facial coverings, surrounded the mayor and others in the public surface of the gate. Baraka dragged her handcuffs back to the security door, and the protesters shouted, "Shameful!"
In a subsequent article on social media platform X, Trump's former private attorney, Alina Habba, who worked as a U.S. attorney in New Jersey, said Baraka "had committed a trespass and ignored multiple warnings" and left.
"He is willing to ignore the law. This will not stand in this state," Haba wrote. "He has been detained. No one has surpassed the law."
U.S. representative Lamonica McIver also worked at the center on Friday with representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr to conduct what they call "surveillance inspections."
McVer said in an article on X that Baraka was “yes” and had left the facility when he was arrested.
"This is unacceptable," McPherson said in the video.
For its part, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security accused lawmakers of “storming” the facility in a “weird political stunt.”
Baraka said the detention center in Newark is still open in Newark despite no proper local permits and approvals. He initiated a lawsuit to prevent its operations.
Geo Group, which coordinated with ICE, denied his claims. It reached a deal with the federal government in February to operate the Delaney Hall facility at a 15-year contract value of $100 million.
Local elected officials quickly condemned the actions of federal agents, and the state's governor, Phil Murphy, wrote on X that he was "angry" at Baraka's unjust arrest.
Murphy called the mayor "a model civil servant who has always stood up for our most vulnerable mayor" and called for his release.
The governor noted that New Jersey had previously passed a law that prohibited the state's private immigration detention center, a Democratic stronghold, despite the center being partially shot down by federal court in 2023.
Baraka, Baraka, the governor’s Democratic primary next month, has been a vocal critic of Trump’s administration’s immigration policy.
He made a rebellious tone to the Trump administration in January after raiding the city business he led on the ice.
"Newark will not be idle when people attack illegally," he said at the time.