Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called for the House of Representatives to censure the three New Jersey Democrat lawmakers involved in a confrontation with law enforcement outside a federal immigration detention center in Newark last week.
"What happened last Friday was we had members of Congress assaulting law enforcement officers," Noem told Fox News on Tuesday of the unrest outside Delaney Hall Detention Center.
"They were cooperating with criminals to create criminal acts," she said. "This wasn't oversight. This was committing felonies. This was going out and attacking people who stand up for the rule of law. And it was absolutely horrible."
According to the Trump administration, Rep. Robert Menendez Jr., D-N.J.; Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.; and Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., "illegally" stormed the privately-run facility that contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain migrants awaiting deportation.
Democrat Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for allegedly trespassing at the detention center, which Noem says holds "rapists," "murderers," and members of "foreign terrorist organizations."
"I just don't understand what their point is," Noem said of the congressional lawmakers. "They have completely lost their minds."
While she didn't demand that the New Jersey Democrats be criminally charged, saying it will be "up to the Department of Justice," Noem called for them to be formally rebuked by the House and removed from their committees.
"It's astounding to me that someone would even vote for someone to put them in a place of leadership when they perpetuate something as hypocritical and as criminal as what these individuals did," Noem said on "Jesse Watters Primetime."
"I hope that the rest of the members of the House of Representatives will hold them accountable," she continued. "They shouldn't be allowed to be on the committees that they're on — in fact, one of them is supposed to be conducting oversight over ICE, and instead, she's assaulting them."
McIver sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, which is tasked with oversight of ICE.
"They don't deserve to be in the House," Noem added. "They should be censured by it."
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., introduced a resolution on Tuesday to strip Watson Coleman, McIver and Menendez Jr. of their committee assignments.
In the aftermath of the incident, McIver and Watson Coleman took to X to accuse the ICE agents of blocking congressional oversight and creating chaos, while Menendez Jr. blamed federal immigration authorities for escalating the situation on CNN.
"There were so many instances where this could've all been de-escalated, but it was squarely in [Homeland Security Investigations], ICE's court — they chose not to," Menendez Jr. told "State of the Union" on Sunday. "They made this a violent scene that we were unfortunately all a part of."
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