Rep. McIver on the Arrest of Newark, N.J. Mayor: ‘Despicable; We Should All be Angry’

EXCERPT:

MCIVER: “Thank you so much, Councilwoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. First of all, I want to start by thanking my colleagues for being here with me today, both Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and, of course, Congressman Bob Menendez for being here. Look, we came here simply to perform our oversight duties. That is why we came here. There is a law that says that we are able to do that as members of Congress, and that is what we got here to do. As soon as we got here, we were met with opposition. People were telling us that they’re getting a supervisor, that they’re going to get someone to come talk with us. We waited and waited. Finally, we went past the gate and then we had to wait longer. We actually waited over two hours to get into this facility just to do a simple oversight visit. They say nothing is wrong with the prison — with this detention center, that we can get in here, that everything, they’re following orders. But once again, they delayed us from getting in here to see this facility. We waited in the waiting area for a very long time, talked to many staff members, talked to the warden of this location, and literally still waiting for ICE officials to get here.”