Delays and cancellations upended operations at Newark Liberty International Airport this week, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said some air traffic controllers are taking time off following recent outages.
On April 28, air traffic controllers briefly lost communication, for about 90 seconds, with planes at Newark Airport.
The blackout and communication breakdown led to hundreds of flights being delayed or canceled. Three dozen flights were also diverted that day, said Aidan O’Donnell, the general manager of New Jersey airports, the New York Times reported.
The situation worsened when air traffic controllers took absences under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, which allows federal workers who are injured or experience a trauma on the job to take time off.
On Friday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was detained after refusing to leave a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
Baraka, along with three members of the New Jersey congressional delegation — Bonnie Watson Coleman (D), Rob Menendez (D) and LaMonica McIver (D) — tried to get access to the Delaney Hall ICE detention center.
“Nothing happened for a long, long time, you know, for at least over an hour. And then, you know, after that, they finally told us to leave, and I told him I was leaving, they came outside the gate and arrested me,” Baraka said during his appearance on MSNBC’s “The Briefing” Friday night. “So it looked like it was targeted.”
He later added that ICE officials “obviously targeted me.”
Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, justified the administration’s moves, claiming the mayor “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself” from the Delaney Hall ICE detention center.
Several lawmakers are slated to appear on Sunday morning shows to discuss both situations.
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