US congresswoman charged with assault outside immigration centre

Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey is being charged with assault after a confrontation with officers outside an immigration detention centre.

Alina Habba - the interim US attorney for the state and an ally of President Donald Trump - announced the charges in a social media post late on Monday.

Habba also said that her office would be dropping a trespassing case against the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, who is another Democratic politician.

Scuffles broke out when McIver, Baraka and others paid an oversight visit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) centre in Newark on 9 May. No injuries were reported.

The Democratic lawmakers were visiting Delaney Hall, which can hold up to 1,000 people and was touted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the first reopened immigration facility under the new Trump administration.

Videos showed increasingly heated discussion and a chaotic scene including police, Ice agents, journalists, the politicians and protesters before Mayor Baraka was arrested.

The members of Congress present were eventually granted access and given a tour of the building.

Administration officials and the Democratic lawmakers opposed to the Ice facility each blamed each other for the scuffles.

DHS said the politicians "stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility."

Commenting on the case on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that McIver had been "out of control".

McIver denied wrongdoing and called the case against her "purely political", while leading congressional Democrats issued a statement saying the charge of assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement "is extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact".

Baraka said the videos taken during the incident "make it clear that Delaney Hall personnel opened the gate for me, and allowed me to enter the property, as well as my calm and respectful departure when asked to leave".

In dropping the charge against the mayor, Habba, who previously worked as a lawyer for Trump, said she would personally give Baraka a tour of the facility.