on Friday afternoon Newark mayor and gubanatorial candidate Raz Baraka visited Delaney Hall with three members of Congress attempting to gain access to the facility The four entered the gates without authorization and as they exited federal officials handcuffed Mayor Baraka leading to a scene that can only be described as chaotic Interim US Attorney for New Jersey Alina Haba said he was charged with trespassing and the mayor is set to appear in court this week It all comes in the final push of Baraka's gubanatorial campaign in a crowded race with five other candidates Senior political correspondent David Cruz looks at the political impact this moment could have The state's political environment was still a buzz today over images of New York Mayor Ras Baraka being led away from the Delaney Hall detention center in handcuffs arrested for the kind of fight the power that Democrats have been clamoring for for months Upon his release hours later Baraka was greeted by a crowd that had grown into the hundreds the Bill of Rights the fourth the fifth the 14th Amendment and everybody on this soil deserve due process That's the only thing that we're asking for We're not asking for anything that's incorrect I actually didn't come down there to protest I came down there to support my Congress people Uh and it's okay This is a part of what democracy is about Uh I'm glad everybody came out here for a show support I love y'all I thank you Please go home to your families and be safe this evening God bless y'all Homeland Security's version of events was that a group of protesters including two members of US Congress stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility It's a story that's been repeated on conservative media despite video that shows a different scenario including a somewhat stunned Baraka getting swung around by federal agents The right was outraged including Bill Spadia former TV personality and one of the Republicans running for governor Ross Baraka is running to be your governor Yet he decided to pull a publicity stunt here at the Delaney Center where illegal criminal aliens are being detained He thought that was an acceptable behavior of somebody who's asking for your vote for governor It's not acceptable It is downright anti-American It's a national story that exploded just weeks ahead of a sixperson Democratic primary for governor It's almost impossible to extricate the context from the events Could this be the kind of thing that blows up a primary in which Baraka's momentum has already been growing This definitely has the potential to impact the race in a big way The other thing you have to remember David is that the race has been bunched up until this point So anything that moves somebody in one direction or the other is a big deal You don't have to move the entire electorate You just have to move enough of the electorate that you can break out of the pack And so that's the potential for Baraka here The US attorney suggested that the members of Congress Rob Mendez Lam Monica Maccgyver and Bonnie Watson Coleman had also broken the law and could themselves still be subject to arrest For the 80-year-old Coleman whose life in public service goes back to the 1960s what started as a fairly normal workday ended up bringing back memories of darker days I was stunned I was hurt to my heart that this was happening in the United States of America But I'm going to thank God for the moment that I was in because I have a firsthand experience of individuals who are not federal officials who don't have IDs and pins and all that other kind of stuff who are not mayors but are walking around trying to live their lives every day go to school drop their kids off go to work and are being uh uh just taken off the streets and treated as if they have no dignity and no humanity Baraka has a court appearance scheduled for Thursday Activists are planning to use the momentum from these events to show Democrats what it means to walk the walk when it comes to fighting Trump I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News