The Briefing with Jen Psaki
'They obviously targeted me': Newark mayor describes chaotic arrest in confrontation at ICE facility
10 May 2025
Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka talks with Jen Psaki following his release from being held in a Homeland Security cell after being arrested and charged with federal trespassing in a chaotic confrontation that included members of Congress outside an ICE facility. "This is disturbing what they think they have the ability to do."
Full Episode
It was one of those Fridays where we have unfortunately become accustomed to in the age of Donald Trump. I mean, it was chaotic, it was bizarre at times, and at times it was very cruel. I mean, today a sitting mayor, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested during a visit to an ICE facility. You may have seen that video. It was just released in the last hour.
If we learn more about that and how he's doing, we'll bring that to you. But Mayor Rasbaraka and members of Congress from New Jersey say they were there as part of an oversight visit, something that is very much allowed for members of Congress, something that has been allowed since the first Trump administration.
And after the mayor was arrested, there was an incredibly chaotic scene, you can see it there, in which members of Congress were basically in the middle of a scrum with masked ICE agents. A member of Congress who was there is going to join me live in just a few minutes. I just mentioned that and we're going to ask more questions about where things stand.
Also today, a Tufts University student was released after spending 45 days, you can see her there after her release, 45 days in a Louisiana detention center simply for writing an op-ed. That's what she did. That's why she spent 45 days in this detention facility.
That apparently or maybe was one of the things that made good old Stephen Miller pretty big mad because today he suggested that the administration is considering suspending people's right to challenge their own imprisonment. And White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt also gave a pretty bonkers briefing today.
So a little later in the show, I'm going to go back to my roots, some of my roots, and field some of the same questions she was asked, but actually answer them truthfully. Not going to show you what she said. I'm going to show you what the questions were asked, because everybody wants to know what's actually happening out there.
But before we get to all of that, I actually want to start with a bit of a different headline today out of Newark, New Jersey. The headline is this. Radar screens at Newark Airport went black again overnight. And just before 4 a.m.
this morning, air traffic control radar screens went black, just totally, completely dead for about 90 seconds, leaving air traffic controllers completely in the dark again. Because remember, this is the second time in just two weeks that air traffic controllers at Newark lost their only tool for preventing plane crashes.
And this, of course, comes on the heels of a series of aviation disasters and near misses during the first 100 days of the Trump administration. I mean, less than four months into the Trump's term, we're still less than four months, we also find ourselves in the middle of one of the worst measles outbreaks in this country, since we eradicated measles more than 25 years ago.
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