U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is being accused of making a veiled threat against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and agents after one of his colleagues was arrested for assaulting a federal agent.
The California lawmaker has made a number of controversial statements surrounding the recent arrest of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who is facing charges for assaulting a federal officer after she and a handful of other lawmakers and activists attempted to gain access to the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark. Footage from the scene appears to show Rep. McIver elbowing and shoving a federal agent while attempting to gain access to the facility.
McIver has denied the allegations against her and insisted she was simply carrying out her “official duties” by attempting to gain access to the facility.
“A RED LINE has been crossed. Trump is prosecuting his political enemies in Congress,” Swalwell wrote in an X post after charges against McIver were announced Monday. “This is just the beginning. We must take whatever we’ve done before to show dissent and go ONE RUNG HIGHER.”
The far-left lawmaker then suggested that acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba will be prosecuted if Democrats regain power. “And save your bull**it documents on this, Alina. You’ll need them when you testify.”
Swalwell doubled down on his rhetoric during an interview with MSNBC, in which he suggested that ICE facilities will soon be targeted by mobs similar to the one McIver and her colleagues were a part of. “We can’t trust them, so we have to do our oversight duties. And she was in the right to go and do that,” the congressman said of McIver.
“And I promise you there’s going to be more unnoticed or unnoticed visits by my colleagues where they show up, and they better be let in.”
While the congressman did call for a “peaceful” day of action elsewhere in the interview, his comments about repeating the Newark incident at other ICE facilities was seen as a threat by some political commentators. “Eric Swalwell is now threatening government officials at ICE detention facilities,” Libs of TikTok wrote in an X post.
He went on to describe the video of McIver shoving federal agents as being consistent with her “official duties” before suggesting that other lawmakers will soon be arrested for arbitrary reasons.
