{"id":42176,"date":"2025-05-12T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42176"},"modified":"2025-05-12T22:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T03:35:49","slug":"gop-rep-threat-to-arrest-democratic-colleagues-very-drastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42176","title":{"rendered":"GOP rep: Threat to arrest Democratic colleagues \u2018very drastic\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rep. Michael McCaul\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Texas) on Sunday called threats to arrest Democratic colleagues over an incident at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility \u201cvery drastic\u201d and only appropriate if anyone actually broke the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview on CBS News\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d McCaul was asked about ICE arresting the mayor of Newark, N.J., outside a federal detention center Friday and about new threats of arrest against three members of Congress who similarly tried to access the detention center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould ICE be arresting or even threatening to arrest members of Congress?\u201d host Ed O\u2019Keefe asked McCaul in the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, that\u2019s obviously a very drastic move. I would only do that if they were complicit with a crime,\u201d McCaul responded. \u201cI don\u2019t know all the facts behind this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCaul noted members of Congress have the right to access federal detention facilities, adding that he did not know if the three members of Congress \u2014 New Jersey Democrats Bonnie Watson Coleman,<\/u><\/a> Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver\u2002<\/u><\/a>\u2014 were otherwise disrupting law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they were just visiting a detention center, that\u2019s \u2014 I\u2019ve done that many times. If they\u2019re disrupting law enforcement, that\u2019s another question,\u201d McCaul said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, you know, we can peacefully protest in this country, but you cannot be complicit with gang violence against our law enforcement. And I think perhaps that\u2019s what it comes down to,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Newark Mayor Ras Baraka\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) was arrested at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a CNN interview that more arrests could be coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did not rule out arresting the three Democratic members, who ICE officials said were pushing and shoving among the people in the crowd outside the facility \u2014 a characterization the Democrats reject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an ongoing investigation, and that is definitely on the table,\u201d McLaughlin said when pressed on whether the members of Congress could be arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body-slamming a female ICE officer, so we will be showing that to viewers very shortly,\u201d McLaughlin said about the members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watson Coleman rejected these claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince DHS has been lying about this, allow me to correct the record. This scuffle, during which an ICE agent physically shoved me, occurred AFTER we had entered the Delaney Hall premises. We entered the facility, came BACK OUT to speak to the Mayor, and then ICE agents began shoving us,\u201d Watson Coleman wrote Friday in a post<\/u><\/a> on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not how we entered the facility. We were escorted in by guards, because we have lawful oversight authority to be there,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Jersey representative said members of Congress have the legal right to conduct oversight at DHS facilities without prior notice and noted she\u2019s conducted visits twice this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe notion that I or any of my colleagues \u2018body slammed\u2019 armed federal officers is absurd. DHS is lying because they know their agents were out of line,\u201d Watson Coleman said in a\u2002statement<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Michael McCaul\u2002(R-Texas) on Sunday called threats to arrest Democratic colleagues over an incident at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility \u201cvery drastic\u201d and only appropriate if anyone actually broke the law. In an interview on CBS News\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d McCaul was asked about ICE arresting the mayor of Newark, N.J., outside a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":42177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2450,2607,1588],"class_list":["post-42176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-arrest","tag-democratic","tag-rep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42179,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176\/revisions\/42179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}