June 5, 2025
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has filed a lawsuit over his arrest at a federal immigration detention center.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump ally, interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, following his arrest at a federal immigration detention center last month.
On June 3, the New Jersey mayor filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark, accusing Habba of defamation and violating his constitutional rights, according to NBC News. Baraka claims Habba, former personal lawyer to Donald Trump, and Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel infringed on his Fourth Amendment protections against false arrest and malicious prosecution.
The Newark mayor, one of six Democrats running for governor of New Jersey, was arrested for trespassing on May 9 after he and several members of Congress tried to enter a Newark Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility to assess detainee conditions. The charges were later dismissed.
Attorneys for Baraka say Habba “directed and ratified the unlawful arrest” of Baraka and acted as a “political operative” by defaming him in inflammatory statements on social media and in TV interviews.
“Habba was not serving in a prosecutorial function when she acted with DHS agents in the scheme to arrest Mayor Baraka,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory damages for “pain, suffering, stress, and humiliation,” along with punitive damages related to the incident. Baraka’s lawsuit draws significantly from remarks made by U.S. Magistrate Judge André Espinosa, who criticized Habba’s office and federal prosecutors for what he called a “worrisome misstep” in their handling of Baraka’s arrest. Espinosa noted that the “apparent rush” to file charges, followed by an “embarrassing retraction,” pointed to a failure to uphold the office’s traditionally high standards.
“It’s easy for people to believe that a mayor being arrested, especially a mayor that looks like me, has been arrested for something other than what just happened,” Baraka said during a press conference. “When people see me in cuffs, they automatically believe I did something wrong.”
In addition to Baraka’s arrest, the Justice Department later filed charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for allegedly assaulting, resisting, and obstructing law enforcement during the incident at the facility. The DOJ sued Newark and several other New Jersey cities—Paterson, Hoboken, and Jersey City—over their sanctuary policies, a lawsuit Baraka calls “absurd.”
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