Washington, D.C. – Today, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, rejected Rep. LaMonica McIver’s (D-NJ) legislative immunity defense in charges stemming from her May 2025 oversight visit to the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in New Jersey.
“Today’s decision is a grave miscarriage of justice,” said Fatima Goss Graves, National Women’s Law Center Action Fund’s president and CEO. “ICE is not above the law and it cannot act with impunity. Rep McIver was exercising her constitutionally protected duty to conduct oversight. Legislative immunity exists so that a hostile administration can’t prosecute lawmakers it perceives as enemies. What is happening to Rep. McIver is no accident: it is an intimidation tactic aimed at silencing a sitting member of Congress who stood up to protect her community members from human rights violations.
“The Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for Black women who dare to challenge its authority. From Letitia James to Lisa Cook and Rep. Ilhan Omar—Rep. McIver is just the latest target in the long list of Black women that Trump and his allies have sought to systematically remove from positions of power.”