The message came from a reporter in the field late on a Friday afternoon.
“ICE just arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.”
Tensions outside Delaney Hall in Newark had been building all week as the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city — a Democrat running for governor who opposed President Trump’s reopening of the detention center — notified the federally-contracted GEO Group that it was operating in violation of city ordinances.
What had been just a local story quickly became a national one.
Our Newark beat reporter was on the ground, cell phone in hand, when ICE officers in tactical gear emerged from Delaney Hall to handcuff Baraka. The confrontation turned physical and later resulted in federal charges against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver who was accused of “storming” the gates and assaulting ICE officers. NJ.com’s on-the-ground reporting and video were indispensable to our real-time cover and would later prove invaluable in dissecting the narrative of what actually happened — which is still being decided by the courts.
NJ.com’s initial story posted just before 4 p.m., with developments added continuously — staff and user-submitted photography, video of the altercation, and scene details. Within an hour, a second story captured the wave of political reactions. By 8 p.m., Baraka was released from detention. Meanwhile, our political reporters interviewed Congress members who disputed the narrative of events portrayed by the federal government.
As videos poured in from the field, our social media teams posted clips to all platforms throughout the night — an initial carousel on Instagram, congress members speaking about what happened, protestors chanting for Baraka’s release, Baraka himself speaking about the arrest, and an on-camera explainer from our top political reporter.
Our coverage was rounded out – that same day – with our sharp-eyed political columnist’s look at what the arrest could mean for Baraka’s role in the upcoming primary, and another hot take from a columnist who focuses on communities of color and immigration issues.
Our coverage in the 72 hours that followed included reporting on Trump’s administration threatening to arrest the congressmembers for “body slamming” agents during the encounter at the gates, and a frame-by-frame analysis of body camera footage that helped piece together what really happened in those heated moments at the gates.
From the first text in the field to a two-day body of accountability journalism, this was NJ.com at its most essential.
