Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a House resolution on Wednesday to expel Democratic New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver, who earlier this week was served with federal charges for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers this month while protesting at a federal immigrant detention center.
“On May 9th, McIver didn’t just break the law, she attacked the very people who defend it,” Mace said in a press release announcing the new House Resolution. “Attacking Homeland Security and ICE agents isn’t just disgraceful, it’s assault. If any other American did what she did, they’d be in handcuffs.
“McIver thinks being a Member of Congress puts her above the law. It doesn’t. She should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The Department of Justice announced federal charges against McIver on Monday, accusing her of “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” earlier this month at a Newark-area immigrant detention center known as Delaney Hall.
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McIver was protesting at the detention center with two other members of Congress to conduct what they claimed were their congressionally mandated oversight duties. Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, who was arrested after the incident, later had his charges dropped.
Law enforcement said McIver “slammed her forearm into the body of a uniformed” immigration official while trying to “restrain the agent by forcibly grabbing him.” McIver also allegedly tried to block agents from arresting Baraka and, after he was put in handcuffs, allegedly “pushed an ICE officer and used her forearms to forcibly strike the agent.”
According to a press release accompanying Mace’s resolution, the House of Representatives already has a precedent for expelling members of Congress who have been charged with serious criminal offenses.
“In a time when public trust in government is at a historic low, the House must act decisively,” Mace said. “The charges are serious. And the public deserves to know that criminal conduct in the halls of Congress has consequences.”
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McIver made her first court appearance on Wednesday virtually before a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey at 11 a.m. ET.
The judge read McIver her rights and the charges against her, later indicating to the member of Congress she would be granted bail and released on her own recognizance as the case makes its way through the courts. But she will only be allowed to travel domestically and must notify the government if she intends to travel internationally for her work duties. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 11.
“I think the charges are absurd. You know, it’s ridiculous. I was there to do my job along with my other colleagues. We have done this before. This is our obligation to do. It’s in our job description to have oversight over a facility. And the entire situation was escalated by ICE,” McIver said Tuesday during an appearance on CNN.
“They caused the confrontation. Homeland came and caused this chaos that we see. It was a very tense situation, but it could have been easily not happened. They had every opportunity to not allow this to happen. It was very unnecessary. And it just, once again, we were there to do our jobs,” she added.
“And if I’m going to be charged with a crime for doing my job, it just speaks to where we’re headed in this country and what we are dealing with as leaders and as Congress members, you know, here in this country.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to McIver’s office for comment on Mace’s resolution.
Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.
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