Several New Jersey Democrats claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents got “rough” with them on Friday, but body-cam footage told a very different story.

The incident unfolded outside Delaney Hall, a detention facility housing criminal illegal aliens in Newark, New Jersey, as several House Democrats (New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson-Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Rob Menendez) pushed past security and demanded access to and oversight of the facility.

According to reports, the protesters waited outside the gate until it was opened for a vehicle transporting detainees, at which point they rushed through the gate. Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also participated in the breach and was arrested.

On Saturday, after the Garden State Democrats claimed that they’d been manhandled and roughed up by the ICE agents, the Justice Department released body-cam footage of the clash between protesters and officers.

WATCH:

NEW: DHS has provided @FoxNews ICE bodycam video from the altercation at the Delaney Hall detention facility yesterday. They say the video clearly shows @RepLaMonica (red clothing) shoving/elbowing her way past a DHS agent to get past the gate and into the property, followed… pic.twitter.com/GOAKm6U80W

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 10, 2025

Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin explained what was shown in the body-cam footage:

“NEW: DHS has provided @FoxNews ICE bodycam video from the altercation at the Delaney Hall detention facility yesterday,” Melugin posted via X. “They say the video clearly shows @RepLaMonica (red clothing) shoving/elbowing her way past a DHS agent to get past the gate and into the property, followed behind by @RepMenendez & that it also shows Congresswoman McIver screaming in the faces of DHS agents.”

“The members of Congress claim they were assaulted and ‘roughed up’ during the incident, and deny DHS’ characterization that they ‘stormed’ the facility,” he added.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joined “Fox & Friends: Weekend” on Saturday to discuss the incident, and he praised the agents on the ground for doing their jobs despite the ongoing protests and opposition from lawmakers.

WATCH:

"I'd like very much for someone to say thank you": Todd Lyons says ICE agents have put their lives on the line to detain public safety threats held at this New Jersey center pic.twitter.com/tjeMBN0VWT

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) May 10, 2025

“I’d like very much for someone to say thank you,” Lyons said.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is also campaigning to be New Jersey’s next governor, has been protesting the ICE detention center since before it even opened. Earlier in the week, he had city officials park a bulldozer in front of the gate, blocking access to the facility.

Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan on Saturday ripped Democrat Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for claiming he was supporting the rule of law when he trespassed at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility.

Baraka was arrested and briefly detained on Friday for “storming” the facility, The Daily Wire reported. The mayor and two other Democrats reportedly rushed into the center after gates were opened to allow a bus of apparent illegal criminals into the facility.

“We ask them to obey our laws, to obey the policies, the rules here, in the city and the state of New Jersey, not to run roughshod over the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, the 4th, 5th, the 14th Amendment, that everybody on this soil deserves due process,” Mayor Baraka said to the press on Friday.

“Well look, he’s not very smart,” Homan reacted on Fox News. “The bottom line is, that is what this facility is all about. This facility is about due process. This facility is where we put illegal aliens … this is where due process happens. We have to detain them to go through the due process of, sometimes seeing a judge,” or other processes, like sending them back to their country.

Homan went on to criticize the Democrats for rushing the facility and putting safety and security at risk for the public, illegal immigrants, and others. “You don’t make an unauthorized entry while they’re moving a bus of criminals into the facility,” he said.

The border czar said people don’t have to support ICE, but they can’t “cross that line.”

“You can’t cross that line of impediment, you can’t cross that line of knowingly harboring, concealing illegal aliens, and you certainly can’t trespass in a facility that’s contracted by the U.S. government to house criminals,” he said. “That’d be like breaking into a prison, not going through the proper protocols. This creates a huge safety crisis.”

“This is about politics” for those Democrats, Homan continued. “They simply don’t want these people removed from this country. They don’t want immigration enforcement in this country.”

As highlighted by The Daily Wire, Baraka is currently campaigning to be New Jersey’s next governor and has been protesting the ICE facility since it opened.

Related: Newark Mayor Arrested After Dem Reps ‘Storm’ New Jersey ICE Facility, Charge Past Security Officers