McIver Requests Full Hearing Of Delaney Hall Case, Extending Appeal
By: Benjamin J. Hulac, Washington Correspondent (NJ Spotlight)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver has requested a rehearing of her criminal case before the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the latest in the legal maneuvering that has punctuated the Trump administration’s high-profile prosecution of the New Jersey congresswoman over a Delaney Hall protest.
In court papers filed late Friday, attorneys for McIver, a two-term Democrat whose seat is anchored around Newark, said the charges “bear all the trappings of political retaliation.”
An appellate panel turned down McIver’s first appeal to dismiss the charges, and the latest filing – known as an “en banc” appeal — requests that the appeal be reheard by the full court.
The case stems from a May 2025 confrontation outside Newark’s Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention facility that holds approximately 800 detainees, though that number fluctuates.
McIver (D-10th) was at Delaney Hall to inspect the facility, one of dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement sites nationwide. She was joined by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, and U.S. Reps. Rob Menendez (D-8th) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th). Baraka also faced charges that were later dropped.
A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in August ruled 2-1 against McIver, allowing two of the three charges against the congresswoman to proceed. She is accused of “assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with a federal officer.”
Among her other options in the latest filing was to send the case to trial or to extend the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case is just one of several prosecutions that the Trump administration has orchestrated against critics of the president. Others include former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook, a current Federal Reserve governor.
In McIver’s case, the Trump administration has moved to make it more difficult for state officials and members of Congress to inspect immigration detention sites such as Delaney Hall, where detainees this year mounted hunger and labor strikes in protest of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
And in May, federal labor inspectors with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration visited Delaney for a surprise inspection, after a complaint from maintenance workers at the site. That inspection is still open, according to federal data.
Meanwhile, immigration officials this summer rescinded a policy that required them to report the deaths of detainees recently released from their custody.
McIver shielded as congresswoman?
Since the start of the case, McIver has argued her official congressional duties shield her from prosecution and the Trump administration has selectively targeted her. The charges initially were brought by former acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, who had been a personal defense lawyer to President Donald Trump and a campaign surrogate.
“Members of Congress have a right to do oversight even, and especially, when the administration does not like what they find,” McIver said in a statement Friday. “I will fight like hell to protect that right.”
McIver, 40, gave birth two weeks to her second child and is running for reelection in November.
In an interview with NJ Spotlight News before the August court ruling, McIver said the pending charges — where she faces up to 17 years in prison — have not derailed her congressional work.
“At the end of the day, we’ve been taking this one stride at a time,” McIver said. “We haven’t let this situation interfere with getting here for votes, delivering for the people, doing what we need to do making sure I’m representing the people in the 10th [congressional district].”
“If we have to go to trial, I’m looking forward to it, because at the end of the day the facts are still on my side,” McIver said. “I showed up there to do my job, and literally the Trump administration hated that and now I’m being prosecuted for it.”
In the initial appeal’s ruling, the three-judge panel disagreed that McIver is shielded from prosecution due to her oversight responsibilities as a lawmaker. For the majority, judge Cindy Chung, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, called McIver’s actions “unambiguously non-legislative” and said “they are not integral to the legislative process.” Trump appointee Stephanos Bibas joined Chung.
The third judge, Thomas Ambro, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, dissented. “The duty Congresswoman McIver sought to perform when she visited Delaney Hall on May 9, 2025 strikes at the heart of the Clause’s purpose: to oversee the Executive Branch,” Ambro wrote in a separate ruling.
If the appeals court grants the rehearing, eyes will fall on judge Emil Bove, a former defense attorney for Trump who was confirmed by the Senate last year to a seat on the appeals court.
This story was originally published by NJ Spotlight News through the NJ News Wire.
