‘What the F is wrong with you?': Black lawmakers rip Trump admin for charging Rep. McIver over ICE standoff
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and others vow to hold the Trump administration accountable for what they say is an abuse of power.
'What the F is wrong with you?' said U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, in a video reacting to the Trump administration criminally charging Rep. LaMonica McIver over an encounter she and other members of Congress had with ICE agents earlier this month.
McIver, a freshman representing New Jersey's 10th Congressional District, has been charged with assaulting, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement. The charges were announced late Monday by Interim New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and served as his legal spokesperson before briefly serving as his White House counselor.
On May 9, Rep. McIver joined Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr. to survey a federal immigration detention center in Newark alongside the city's mayor, Ras Baraka, who was infamously arrested for allegedly trespassing. Video footage of the skirmish showed a chaotic scene as all three members of Congress attempted to prevent ICE agents from arresting Baraka, whose misdemeanor case was dismissed.
Black members of Congress swiftly condemned Habba's decision to charge Congresswoman McIver, accusing the Trump administration of playing politics and abusing their executive power. They vowed to seek accountability.
'We're going to make sure that every single person responsible for this corrupt abuse of power and egregious overreach is held accountable,' said Jeffries.
The House Democratic leader refuted the claim that McIver committed any crime and insisted that she and her colleagues were 'conducting a constitutionally protected oversight visit.' Jeffries demanded the charges against the New Jersey congresswoman be dropped 'immediately.'
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, also quickly condemned the charges against McIver late Monday night.
'Let me be very clear: this is what the weaponization of government looks like,' said Crockett, a rising star in the Democratic Party. 'Rep. LaMonica McIver was doing her job—conducting oversight, standing up for her constituents, and demanding answers from an out-of control-administration.'
Crockett, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, said that instead of being allowed to do her job, McIver was met with 'retaliation' and 'intimidation,' adding, 'Now, they're hitting her with charges.'
'Let's be honest: this isn't about justice. It's a political stunt—plain and simple. Charging Rep. McIver is a desperate attempt to scare her into silence,' said the congresswoman and attorney. 'If they can come for an elected Member of Congress while she's doing her job, they can come for anybody. Doesn't matter if you're a citizen, a green card holder, or someone just trying to survive in this country—if you challenge their power, you become a target.'
The Texas lawmaker continued: 'This is the same tired authoritarian playbook we've seen again and again under this administration.'
Rep. Yvette Clarke, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, also condemned the Trump administration as being 'cowardly' and hitting McIver with 'bogus charges.'
'Ultimately, these efforts will fail, because House Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus will never bend the knee to the Trump administration,' said Clarke.
'The CBC and House Democrats will continue working each day to hold President Trump and his administration accountable, including conducting constitutionally mandated oversight and standing up against these attempts at congressional intimidation, bullying, and extreme abuses of power.'
More must-reads:
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Rep. LaMonica McIver charged with assault after skirmish at ICE center, DOJ prosecutor says
Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms 'heartbroken' over Biden's cancer diagnosis
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Atlantic
5 minutes ago
- Atlantic
Stephen Miller Triggers Los Angeles
During a lull in the chanting outside the federal building targeted by protesters in downtown Los Angeles this week, I walked up behind a hooded young man wearing a mask and carrying a can of spray paint. He began to deface the marble facade in big black letters. WHEN TYRANNY BECOMES LAW, REBELLION BECOMES DUTY—THOMAS JEFFERSON, he wrote, adding his tag, SMO, in smaller font. SMO told me that he is 21, Mexican American, an Angeleno, and a 'history buff' who thinks about the Founding Fathers more than the average tagger does. He said he wanted to write something that stood out from the hundreds of places where FUCK ICE now appears. 'I needed a better message that would inspire more people to remember that our history as Americans is deeply rooted in being resistant to the ones who oppress us,' he told me. 'Our Founding Fathers trusted that we the people would take it into our hands to fight back against a government who no longer serves the people.' (The quote, although spurious, captures some of the ideas that Jefferson put into the Declaration of Independence, according to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.) Whether what's occurring in Los Angeles is a noble rebellion, a destructive riot, or a bit of both, the protests here have been the most intense demonstrations against President Donald Trump and his policies since he retook office. They were set off by a new, more aggressive phase of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the city last week. But it's important to keep some perspective on the size of the confrontations. Los Angeles County covers more than 4,000 square miles, with a population of 10 million, and across much of that sunny expanse, life has carried on as usual this week. Missy Ryan and Jonathan Lemire: The White House is delighted with events in Los Angeles The protesters' focal point has been the federal building in downtown Los Angeles where several Department of Homeland Security agencies, including ICE, have offices. Just across the 101 freeway is the El Pueblo de Los Angeles historic plaza, which marks the site where settlers of Native American, African, and European heritage first arrived in 1781. Nearly every city block in this part of town is taken up by a courthouse or some other stone edifice of law or government, including the Art Deco tower of Los Angeles City Hall. In a city built on shaky ground, these civic structures are meant to project stability and permanence. But L.A.'s layered, fraught history seemed very much on the minds of many demonstrators I spoke with, who told me that they felt like their right to belong—regardless of legal status—was under attack. Although the crowd of protesters has not been especially large, drawing at most a few thousand people, it has been a microcosm of Los Angeles and the deep-blue Democratic coalition that has dominated the city for decades. It's a mix of young Hispanic people—many the children of first-generation immigrants—and older liberals, college students, and left-wing activists; also present is a contingent of younger, more militant protesters, who have been eager to confront police and inflict damage on the city's buildings and institutions, and film themselves doing it. At one point on Monday, I watched a group of jumpy teen boys in hoods and masks who appeared no older than 15 or 16 approach one of the last unblemished surfaces on the federal building. One shook a spray can and began writing in large, looping letters. The nozzle wasn't working well, and his friends began to rush him. Trump is a BICH, he wrote, and ran away. Observing the crowd and speaking with protesters over the past several days, I couldn't help but think of Stephen Miller, the top Trump aide who has ordered immigration officials to arrest and deport more and more people, encouraging them to do so in the most attention-grabbing of ways. The version of Los Angeles represented by the protesters is the one Miller deplores. The city has a voracious demand for workers that, for decades, has mostly looked past legal status and allowed newcomers from around the world to live and work without much risk of arrest and deportation. Trump and Miller have upended that in a way many people here describe as a punch in the face. Los Angeles, specifically the liberal, upper-middle-class enclave of Santa Monica, is Miller's hometown, and it became the foil for his archconservative political identity. He is often described as the 'architect' of Trump's immigration policy, but his role as a political strategist—and chief provocateur—is much bigger than that. It is no fluke that Los Angeles is where Miller could most aggressively assert the ideas he champions in Trump's MAGA movement: mass deportations and a maximal assertion of executive power. No matter if it means calling out U.S. troops to suppress a backlash triggered by those policies. 'Huge swaths of the city where I was born now resemble failed third world nations. A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers,' Miller wrote Monday on X. He was attacking Governor Gavin Newsom for suing to reverse the Trump administration's takeover of the California National Guard—the first time the government has federalized state forces since 1965. Trump has also called up 700 U.S. Marines. Miller was defending the use of force to subdue protesters, but he was really talking about something bigger in his hometown. This was a culture war, with real troops. What was the spark? On May 21, Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem brought the heads of ICE's regional offices to Washington for a dressing-down. Trump had promised the largest mass-removal campaign in U.S. history and wanted 1 million deportations a year. ICE officers had been making far more arrests in American communities than under Joe Biden, but they were well short of Trump's desired pace. Miller demanded 3,000 arrests a day—a nearly fourfold increase—and demoted several top ICE officials who weren't hitting their targets. Miller's push is just a warm-up. The Republican funding bill Trump wants to sign into law by Independence Day would formalize his goal of 1 million deportations annually, and furnish more than $150 billion for immigration enforcement, including tens of billions for more ICE officers, contractors, detention facilities, and removal flights. If Los Angeles and other cities are recoiling now, how will they respond when ICE has the money to do everything Miller wants? Trump and his 'border czar,' the former ICE acting director Tom Homan, had been insisting for months that the deportation campaign would prioritize violent criminals and avoid indiscriminate roundups. Miller has told ICE officials to disregard that and to hit Home Depot parking lots. So they have. The number of arrests reported by ICE has soared past 2,000 a day in recent weeks. Backed by the Border Patrol, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other federal law-enforcement agencies pressed into helping ICE, officers are arresting people who show up for immigration-court appointments or periodic 'check-ins' to show that they have remained in compliance with court orders. Last week in Los Angeles, ICE teams began showing up at those Home Depot parking lots and work sites, including a downtown apparel factory. This was a redline for many Angelenos. Protesters told me that it was the moment Miller and Trump went from taunts and trolling to something more personal and threatening. About a third of the city's residents are foreign-born. Juliette Kayyem: Trump's gross misuse of the National Guard 'This is humiliating,' Hector Agredano, a 30-year-old community-college instructor who was demonstrating on Sunday outside a Pasadena hotel, told me. ICE officers were rumored to be staying at the location and two others nearby, drawing dozens of protesters who chanted and carried signs demanding ICE out of LA! 'They are tearing apart our families,' Agredano told me. 'We will not stand for this. They cannot sleep safely at night while our communities are being terrorized.' Some activists have been trying to track ICE vehicles and show up where officers make arrests to film and protest. More established activist groups are organizing vigils and marches while urging demonstrators to remain peaceful. They have struggled to contain the younger, angrier elements of the crowd downtown who lack their patience. On Sunday, I watched protesters block the southbound lanes of the 101 until police cleared them with tear gas. Some in the crowd hurled water bottles and debris down at officers and set off bottle rockets and cherry bombs. The police responded with flash-bangs, which detonate with a burst of light. There were so many explosions happening, it wasn't easy to tell if they belonged to the protesters or to law enforcement. I tried approaching a police line, and a boom sounded near my head, ringing my ears. One group of vandals summoned several Waymo self-driving cars to the street next to the plaza where the city was founded and set them ablaze. People in the crowd hooted and cheered at the leaping flames, and the cars' melting batteries and sensors sent plumes of oily black smoke toward police helicopters circling above. Firetrucks arrived and put out the last of the flames, leaving little piles of gnarled metal. City officials grew more alarmed the following evening, when smaller groups of masked teenagers rampaged through downtown and looted a CVS, an Apple Store, and several other businesses, prompting Mayor Karen Bass to set an 8 p.m. curfew in the area yesterday. The smoke and flames began shifting attention away from the administration's immigration imagery has been giddily watched by White House officials, and it's fueled speculation that it could create an opening for Miller to attempt to invoke the Insurrection Act. For years he has longingly discussed the wartime power, which would give troops a direct law-enforcement role on U.S. streets, potentially including immigration arrests. Yesterday, Trump said that he would not allow Los Angeles to be 'invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy,' and that he would 'liberate' the country's second-largest city. His send-in-the-Marines order underscored his apparent eagerness to deal with the demonstrators as combatants, rather than as civilians and American citizens. Since Trump's announcement, protesters have been on the lookout for the Marines, wondering if their arrival would signal a darker, more violent phase of the government's response. But military officials said today that the Marine units will need to receive more training in civilian deployments before they go to Los Angeles. Despite the attention on the federalized California National Guard troops, they have had a minimal role so far, standing guard at the entrance to the federal building where SMO and other taggers have left messages for Trump and ICE. Mayor Bass said that about 100 soldiers were stationed there as of today. Trump has activated 4,000, and there are signs that their role is already expanding: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a photo yesterday of soldiers with rifles and full combat gear standing guard for ICE officers making street arrests. 'This We'll Defend,' he wrote. David Frum: For Trump, this is a dress rehearsal In downtown Los Angeles, though, the LAPD and the California Highway Patrol—which are under the control of the state and local Democratic leaders—have been left to handle violent protesters and looters. By insisting that Trump's troop deployment is unnecessary and provocative, Newsom and Bass are under more pressure to make sure that their forces, not Trump's, can keep a lid on the anger. Their officers have fired tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and a kind of less-than-lethal projectile known as a sponge grenade that leaves bruises and welts. One Australian television reporter was hit while doing a live report; many others have been shot at point-blank range. Over more than three days of street confrontations, there have been no deaths or reports of serious injuries. Some protesters gathered up the spent sponge munitions as souvenirs. With a hard foam nose and a thick plastic base, they resemble Nerf darts from hell. I met one protester, carrying a camera, who wore a bandage around his forearm where he'd been struck minutes earlier. Castro—he wouldn't give me his first name—told me that he was a 39-year-old security guard whose parents are from El Salvador. He likened the pain to a sprained ankle. 'I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I support, I love, I stand for America. I love the USA,' he told me. 'I'm here today to support our people of Los Angeles. That's it.' Some Democrats outside the state have chafed at the sight of protesters waving Mexican flags and those of other nations, which Trump officials have seized upon as evidence of anti-Americanism. Protesters told me the flags of their or their parents' home countries are not intended as a sign of loyalty to another nation. Quite a few protesters waved the Stars and Stripes too, or a hybrid of the American flag and their home country's. Hailey, a 23-year-old welder carrying a Guatemalan flag, told me she wanted to display her heritage at a protest that brought together people from all over. That was part of belonging to California, she said: 'I was born on American soil, but I just think it's appropriate to celebrate where my family is from. And America is supposed to be a celebration of that.' Dylan Littlefield, a bishop who joined a rally on Sunday led by union organizers, told me that he grew up in L.A. with Italian Americans displaying their flag. 'No one has ever made a single comment or had any objection to the Italian flag flying, so the people that are making the flag issue now really are trying to create a battle where there's no battle to be had,' he said. The protests against Trump in Los Angeles have picked up, to some extent, where those in Portland left off. In 2020, anti-ICE protesters targeted the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, and DHS sent federal agents and officers to defend the building and confront the crowds. The destructive standoff carried on for months, and the city's Democratic mayor and Oregon's Democratic governor eventually had to use escalating force against rioters. Newsom and Bass seem keen to avoid the price they would pay politically if that were to occur here, but for now they are caught between the need to suppress the violent elements of the protests and their desire to blame the White House for fanning the flames. Anne Applebaum: This is what Trump does when his revolution sputters Trump officials say they have delighted in the imagery of L.A. mayhem and foreign-flag waving, but they face a threat, too, if protests spread beyond blue California and become a nationwide movement. That would take pressure off Newsom and Bass. Doe Hain, a retired teacher I met in Pasadena this week holding a Save Democracy sign for passing motorists, told me that the ICE push into California symbolizes the worst fears of an authoritarian takeover by a president unfazed by the idea of turning troops against Americans. 'I don't really think I can protest the existence of ICE as a federal agency, but we can protest the way that they're doing things,' Hain said. 'They're bypassing people's rights and the laws, and that's not right.' Few people I spoke with said they thought the protests in Los Angeles would diminish, even if more troops arrive in the city. There have been fewer reports of ICE raids since the protests erupted, and one Home Depot I visited on Monday—south of Los Angeles, in Huntington Park—had had only a handful of arrests that day, bystanders told me. ICE teams had moved to other locations in Southern California and the Central Valley. They will surely be back. At a minimum, Miller and other Trump officials have come away from this round of confrontations with the imagery they wanted. Today, DHS released a none-too-subtle social-media ad with a dark, ominous filter, featuring the flaming Waymos, Mexican flags, looters, and rock throwers. 'RESTORE LAW AND ORDER NOW!' it said, with the number for an ICE tip line. It fades out on an image of a burning American flag.
Fox News
6 minutes ago
- Fox News
DHS releases video of agents arresting suspect who allegedly assaulted border patrol officer
Video shows the moment the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested "a violent rioter" in Los Angeles accused of punching a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared video of the chaos on X, showing two HSI vehicles blocking a white sedan before officers got out with guns drawn. "This was no hit and run," DHS wrote. "This was a targeted arrest of a violent rioter who punched a CBP officer." DHS said HSI tried to arrest Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho for the assault, and he attempted to flee in the vehicle. Cerno-Camacho was arrested and taken into custody, the video shows. "Our officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murder[er]s, rapists and gang member[s]," DHS said. "[DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem's message to the LA rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE and our federal law enforcement partners will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Riots across Los Angeles erupted Friday, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted operations targeting criminal illegal aliens at businesses across the city. About 45 people were arrested in several locations, including two Home Depot stores, a store in the fashion district and a doughnut shop. Among those arrested was 49-year-old Cuong Chanh Phan, an illegal alien from Vietnam with a criminal history that includes a conviction for second-degree murder. Phan was convicted of shooting up a high school graduation party after a dispute, killing an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old. Seven others were injured in the shooting, according to DHS. The FBI also announced it was looking for Elpidio Reyna after he allegedly assaulted a federal officer during one of the anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles. Reyna was allegedly captured on video throwing rocks at law enforcement vehicles on Alondra Boulevard in Paramount, California, resulting in an injury to a federal officer and damage to government vehicles. DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
CBS News
6 minutes ago
- CBS News
Family of Gen. Richard Cavazos, Army's first Hispanic four-star general, saddened by President Trump's plan to rename Fort Cavazos
The family of Gen. Richard Cavazos, the U.S. Army's first Hispanic four-star general, expressed sadness Wednesday over President Donald Trump's plan to restore the original names of several military installations, including renaming Fort Cavazos in Killeen back to Fort Hood. Base renamed in 2023 to remove Confederate ties Trump's announcement comes just two years after the Central Texas base was renamed during the Biden administration as part of a broader initiative to remove Confederate references from U.S. military sites. The base had previously been named after Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood. Gen. Richard E. Cavazos Military Hall of Honor, LLC In a statement, the Cavazos family said an Army representative confirmed the change during a phone call with them on Wednesday. Family told renaming honors different Hood The Cavazos family said they were told the renaming may honor a different Hood, whom they described as the "courageous Colonel Hood of World War I" rather than, in their words, the "infamous Gen. John Bell Hood." "We do not and cannot share the same understanding as the president as to his reasoning for doing so," the family said in the statement. Cavazos praised as Hispanic trailblazer They noted that when Fort Hood was renamed Fort Cavazos, Gen. Colin Powell and others in the military remarked on Gen. Cavazos's impact on "Hispanic persons in the military." They quoted Maj. Gen. Alfred Valenzuela, as saying, "I told him what he meant to us poor Hispanic kids [...] his impact as a mentor is probably the greatest impact our Army had … we all looked up to him as an American soldier, a Hispanic soldier." Focus remains on service members Meanwhile, the family said its "greatest focus is and should always be on the everyday men and women who serve this country in the armed forces." "While the name of the base may change, the everlasting legacy of the incredible men and women who continue to serve there cannot," the statement said. Cavazos was decorated war veteran In addition to being the Army's first Hispanic four-star general, Gen. Cavazos, a Texas native, was a decorated veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. He also served as the commanding general of III Corps at Fort Hood from 1980 to 1982.
