(NewsNation) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was in federal court Thursday for a status conference after he was charged with trespassing at an immigration detention center last week.
After a brief 15-minute procedural hearing, Baraka addressed a crowd of supporters outside and called for the charge to be dismissed.
“It is silly, it’s petty, it’s unlawful — get rid of it!” Baraka said.
A trial date wasn’t set on Thursday, but both parties agreed mid- to late July could work.
The trespassing charge comes after Baraka, a Democrat running for governor of New Jersey, was arrested at a protest at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center. Witnesses said he attempted to join three members of Congress trying to enter the facility. He has denied the trespassing charge.
Baraka has been an outspoken critic of the detention center and told NewsNation he is concerned about who is being detained and whether they have received due process.
Baraka has also criticized the GEO Group, which has contracted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to manage the detention center.
He said the group has not applied for a certificate of occupancy or allowed federal inspectors inside.
“We don’t have an issue with the Department of Homeland Security. Our issue is with the GEO Group, who is a private prison operator who, in fact, occupies that property,” Baraka told NewsNation on Wednesday.
In a video of the altercation shared with the Associated Press, a federal official in a jacket with the Homeland Security Investigations logo can be heard telling Baraka he could not enter the facility because “you are not a Congress member.”
Baraka then left the secure area, rejoining protesters on the public side of the gate. Video footage showed him speaking through the gate to a man in a suit, who said, “They’re talking about coming back to arrest you.”
Minutes later, several ICE officers, some wearing face coverings, surrounded Baraka and others on the public side. Baraka was dragged back through the gate in handcuffs.
Baraka told NewsNation he had been invited onto the property and committed no crime.
“The guard of GEO allowed me on the property. He asked me to come in, as a matter of fact,” Baraka said. “I stayed in there for over an hour, waiting right there at the gate until Homeland Security arrived and began to target and harass me. They instructed me to leave. I did. Eventually, when I left, they came on the other side of the gate anyway. After a phone call, they received and arrested me.”
The trespassing charge against Baraka carries a maximum sentence of 30 days in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
