WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday voted down a measure to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., and remove her from a committee assignment over her role in a tense confrontation with law enforcement at a New Jersey immigration detention center in May.
Five Republican members joined all Democrats to sink the resolution: Nebraska Reps. Don Bacon and Mike Flood, Ohio Reps. David Joyce and Michael Turner, and California Rep. David Valadao.
Two other Republicans voted present, providing Democrats enough votes to table the measure.
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., had introduced the resolution Tuesday night as a privileged matter, the fast-track process that forces a vote within two legislative days. This was his second attempt, as he had also introduced the resolution before the August recess.
McIver lashed out at Higgins after he threatened to push the vote, saying in a statement: "We were all elected to do the people's work. I take that responsibility seriously — Clay Higgins clearly does not."
"Instead of making life any better for the people he represents, he's seeking to punish me for doing what he and his caucus are too cowardly to do: conduct real oversight, stand up to this administration, and do our jobs," she added. "If House Republicans think they can make me run scared, they're wrong."
On May 9, McIver joined fellow New Jersey Democrats, including Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, in trying to enter U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark. During a chaotic encounter, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on trespassing charges, which were later dropped. McIver told reporters afterward, “We were assaulted by multiple ICE agents."
Later that month, the Department of Justice charged McIver with two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with the incident. In June, a federal grand jury indicted McIver on three counts of “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers.” The congresswoman pleaded not guilty.
McIver represents New Jersey's 10th Congressional District, which covers Newark and Orange and portions of Essex, Hudson and Union counties.
Higgins' resolution would have only removed McIver from the House Homeland Security committee — it didn't target her membership on the small business committee.
The last member that the House censured was Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, in March, after he interrupted President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
The House has voted to strip several members of committee assignments in recent years. When Democrats held the majority in 2021, they voted to remove Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., from her assigned committees for spreading dangerous conspiracy theories.
Democrats also voted at the time to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., posting a video that depicted Gosar killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. In 2023, Republicans voted to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Higgins himself recently resigned from the Homeland Security Committee because of a difference in “core principles and agenda” with the newly elected chairman, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., according to a release from Higgins.
