Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday at a federal immigration detention center where he has been protesting its opening this week, a federal prosecutor said.

Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka was trespassing and ignored warnings from Homeland Security personnel to leave Delaney Hall, a detention facility run by prison operator Geo Group.

Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law” and said that he was taken into custody.

Baraka, a Democrat who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration.

He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.

Linda Baraka, the mayor’s wife, accused the federal government of targeting her husband.

“They didn’t arrest anyone else. They didn’t ask anyone else to leave,” she said.

Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman, in attempting to enter the facility.

When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.

“There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka in handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said the lawmakers had not asked for a tour of the facility. The department said that as a bus carrying detainees was entering, “a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

Homeland Security did not respond to questions about why only the mayor was arrested.

Watson Coleman spokesperson Ned Cooper said the lawmakers went to the facility early in the afternoon unannounced because their plan was to inspect it, not to take a scheduled tour.

“They arrived, explained to the guards and the officials at the facility that they were there to exercise their oversight authority,” he said, adding that they were allowed to enter and inspect the center sometime between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

DHS, in its statement issued after Baraka’s arrest, said Menendez, Watson Coleman and a number of protesters were currently “holed up in a guard shack” at the facility.

“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour,” McLaughlin said.

Watson Coleman, who left and was at a Homeland Security Investigations holding facility where Baraka was said to have been taken, said the DHS statement inaccurately characterized the visit.

“Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not ‘storm’ the detention center,” she wrote. “The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn’t even correctly count the number of Representatives present. We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident.”