NPR’s Steve Inskeep asks Democratic Sen. Cory Booker about protests around an ICE detention facility in his home state of New Jersey and lawmakers’ agenda as Congress returns to Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker knows the ground at this protest very well. He is a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and he’s on the line. Senator, welcome back.
CORY BOOKER: Thank you for having me.
INSKEEP: One of your successors says Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a curfew that would keep protesters away from the ICE facility. And, of course, the governor we heard says that violence just pulls attention away from the detainees. Do you believe they are making the right moves?
BOOKER: This is an ongoing situation and it’s currently evolving rapidly. We have a lot of people from the Proud Boys to Greg Bovino coming from outside of our state to do just this, to try to escalate violence and conflict from the facility and distract from the moral urgency of this facility that should be closed and the really conscious, shocking reality of what’s going on inside the facility. So I’ve been monitoring it, working with the rest of the congressional delegation to try to make sure that people have the right to peacefully protest. These protests outside of Delaney Hall have been going on for many months. But unfortunately, right now, there’s a lot of folks who are trying to come in and precipitate violence to distract from the moral urgency of the crisis inside the facility.
INSKEEP: I want to make sure I understand the allegation you’re making here, Senator. When you talk about the Proud Boys coming in, or you say that Greg Bovino, a former federal official in the Trump administration, is coming in, are you essentially saying this violence is almost a false flag, that it is being provoked by people on the political right rather than the left?
BOOKER: Again, I think we distract from what’s going on inside when we start talking about left-right accusations. We have a moral urgency, a moral stain on our state, which is this facility that is doing unconscionable things within our community. And I think those folks who have been protesting, those folks, including myself and the governor, who have been demanding this close, that the violence that’s escalating outside is distracting from the moral call, the consistent moral call about what’s going on inside.
INSKEEP: I understand. But you raised the matter of the likes of Greg Bovino there. Are you saying that people on the right are responsible for this violence that we’ve seen video of?
BOOKER: No. I’m saying right now, clearly, we have people coming into our state, into our community, disrupting the peaceful protesters, disrupting peace and order and the moral urgency at the moment. They’re definitely the Proud Boys that did come, and Greg Bovino did come. And that’s just evidence of what we’re trying to make sure we stop is those people who want to create violence and give space for peaceful protests. And again, to keep the light of this urgency on what is going on inside. I visited inside that facility, and what is going on inside of there would shock the conscience of our country. And that’s what we’re trying to bring it into.
INSKEEP: Senator, let me ask you about the other story we just heard about. Our congressional correspondent, Eric McDaniel, talked about an immigration funding bill that appears to be stuck because Democrats want an amendment that would block President Trump from this $1.776 billion fund that would go to people who claim that they were targeted by the government, possibly including people who attacked the Capitol on January 6. Are you confident that there is no way that immigration bill can pass without that amendment attached to it?
BOOKER: Well, first of all, we’re blocking – and I’m not going to vote for another dollar to fund a reckless, out-of-control and very cruel agency, which is what we’re seeing right now as Americans have witnessed. Mass agents jumping out of unmarked cars, throwing American citizens to the ground, breaking into homes, menacing around churches and schools and more. But yes, this smash-and-grab slush fund that is ironically named with the price of $1.776 billion, which hearkens back to our founding, but our founding was about stopping rulers from being able to take public money and do what they want, including to fund people who beat cops on January 6.
So we are working very hard to call that out, and any bill that tries to move through the Senate is going to have amendments on it to block this president’s smash-and-grab cop-beating fund. We’re going to do everything we can to force them to take votes on the president’s vanity projects from his arch to his ballroom because this is a president that seems to be concerned about everything except for what people in our country want to be concerned with, which is driving prices down, restoring the massive healthcare cuts and really being focused on our own economy.
INSKEEP: Eric McDaniel told us that this fund is so unpopular, even with Republicans. There might be 30 Republican votes against it. Do you believe that, after a weekend of whatever there may have been – arm-twisting conversations – that a lot of Republicans are still going to be with you on this?
BOOKER: Yeah, I really hope so. We’ve seen this Republican Party, unfortunately, lay down for the president on many unpopular things in America. But more and more as we get closer to November elections, we’re seeing an electorate that doesn’t give a damn about left or right, but they know that the Republican Party has been dead wrong, and that Congress, which swore an oath to check and balance, to provide accountability and oversight to the president, this Republican-controlled Congress has just let him do whatever he wants, from an unconstitutional war abroad to doing things that are driving up costs – skyrocketing costs going up.
INSKEEP: I’ve got to stop it there. But Senator Cory Booker, it’s a pleasure. Thank you so much, sir.
BOOKER: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF EMMANUEL BRUN’S “LA VOIX PSYCHEDELIQUE”)
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
