Trump scores federal court win against House progressive accused of assaulting ICE
A House member slammed a forearm into an ICE officer. Two appellate judges just said that is not oversight.
Summary
- Fox News reports a 2-1 Third Circuit panel refused to dismiss the Justice Department case against Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., over a May 2025 clash at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark.
- Biden-appointed Judge Cindy Chung and Trump-appointed Judge Stephanos Bibas held that legislative immunity does not cover two assault counts. A third count was sent back to the lower court. Judge Thomas Ambro dissented.
- Court papers say McIver slammed her forearm into a federal officer trying to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, then used both forearms to strike an officer as she returned inside the secured area. An unannounced Democratic visit had turned into a physical standoff.
- McIver sought dismissal as official congressional duty and called the charges vindictive. The majority wrote that pushing past and forcibly striking someone is unambiguously non-legislative. McIver said the court got it wrong and that she will not fold.
Commentary
An ICE officer in Newark still feels a forearm in the ribs and then clocks back onto a perimeter. He does not get a civics lecture if a House member turns a tour into a shove. He gets a bruise and a presser that calls him the problem.
That is the gap. Three counts. Two judges, including a Biden appointee, said a forearm is not oversight. The honest dad waits behind plexiglass for a visitor badge. The congresswoman wanted immunity for a strike inside a secured hall.
Look every officer who still holds a door in the eye and answer this: if a House pin can turn a shove into 'oversight,' what part of the badge still means the law?
Comments
A secured hall is not a town hall. A forearm is a charge, not a hearing.
I took a shove on a gate. Immunity is for speech on the floor, not a strike on a federal sleeve.
Chung and Bibas wrote it clean: pushing and striking are non-legislative. That is the Constitution talking.
A legislature that excuses a shove at a detention door teaches the street the same lesson.
Watch the 'vindictive' line. It never sat with the officer who still has to walk Delaney Hall at night.
I get written up for a raised voice. She wants a pass for both forearms.
A mayor's arrest is not a playdate. A stray shove is how a family loses the next officer.
Newark counted the cameras. The Third Circuit just counted the statute.
Fox printed Delaney Hall, three counts, 2-1, and the forearm into the arrest. Argue those nouns.
Keep the case. Drop the immunity stunt. A House pin does not cancel an ICE collar.
