FIRST ON FOX: A Republican lawmaker is moving to have three of his Democratic colleagues removed from their House committees after they were accused of “storming” a federal detention facility in defense of illegal immigrants in New Jersey.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., introduced a resolution on Tuesday to strip Reps. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., and LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., of their committee assignments.
The New Jersey Democrats were part of a group of protesters who rushed into Delaney Hall Detention Center after the gates opened for a bus carrying a group of detainees into the facility.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused them of breaking in and risking the safety of both law enforcement and detainees for what it called a political stunt.
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The lawmakers and their supporters, however, maintained they were exercising their constitutional duty and accused ICE agents of assaulting McIver and Watson Coleman.
“The radical left has lost their minds – they would rather raid an ICE facility to defend criminal illegal immigrants than represent their own constituents,” Carter told Fox News Digital of his legislation.
“This behavior constitutes an assault on our brave ICE agents and undermines the rule of law. The three members involved in this stunt do not deserve to sit on committees alongside serious lawmakers.”
His legislation would remove Watson Coleman from the House Appropriations Committee, remove Menendez from the House Energy & Commerce Committee and remove McIver from the House committees on Small Business and Homeland Security.
Carter’s office is reaching out to other House Republicans to gauge support for the resolution.
Fox News Digital reached out to the three Democrats for comment but did not immediately hear back.
DHS said in a statement after the incident Friday, “These members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and the detainees at risk.”
“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility,” DHS said.
The Democrats, meanwhile, have pushed back on the Republican categorization of the event.
“The idea we ‘stormed’ a heavily guarded federal detention center is absurd – just more lies from the most dishonest administration in history,” Watson Coleman wrote on X.
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McIver wrote on the social platform Friday, “This is laid out clearly on ICE’s own website. What happened today, from the manhandling of me and my colleagues to the arrest of [Newark Mayor Ras Baraka], should never have occurred.”
Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also defended the trio.
“The concerns of elected officials about this unsanctioned facility will not be silenced by the Trump administration’s attempt to intimidate the public. We will never bend the knee,’ Jeffries said.
“The masked agents who physically accosted two Congresswomen must be identified immediately and any trumped-up charges against Mayor Baraka dropped.”
