Rep. LaMonica McIver is in the midst of one of the biggest fights of her life. Charged with assaulting federal officers outside a New Jersey immigration detention facility last spring, the first-term Democratic lawmaker is up against President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, which has sought over the past year to paint McIver as violent and “out of control.”
If convicted, McIver — who is 17 weeks pregnant — could spend up to 17 years in prison.
The New Jersey Democrat shared her pregnancy exclusively with PEOPLE, detailing in an interview the emotional balancing act of celebrating a dream realized while confronting the anxiety of an uncertain future.
McIver, 39, and her husband, Khalif Thomas, had been trying for a second child before McIver won a special election for a vacant New Jersey House seat in September 2024. (The couple, who married in 2023, also share a 9-year-old daughter).
“I have been trying to have another baby for quite some time now,” McIver tells PEOPLE.
The congresswoman recalled feeling “relief” when she took a positive pregnancy test early this year, after a lengthy battle with infertility.
“I was really, extremely excited,” she says. “But once you get that positive pregnancy test, that’s just one step of it. You’re kind of on pins and needles for a long time. Even now at 17 weeks, I’m still on pins and needles every day, hoping that things are successful.”
McIver recognizes this might not seem like an ideal time to have a baby.
In June 2025, the Justice Department charged McIver in a three-count indictment alleging she “forcibly impeded and interfered” with federal officers during an oversight visit to Delaney Hall in Newark, N.J., that May.
The department said McIver had used both her forearms to “forcibly strike” one immigration officer and had tried to restrain another as officers attempted to handcuff the city’s mayor, Ras Baraka, whom they said was not authorized to be there.
McIver has maintained her innocence and is seeking to have the case thrown out, arguing in court papers that her conduct at the detention center that day falls under the protections of the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause,” which shields members of Congress from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits tied to their legislative work.
U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, declined to dismiss the charges in a November ruling, which McIver has appealed. Her legal team will argue before a federal court next month, three days after McIver’s 40th birthday, that the charges brought against her are politically motivated and should be dismissed before trial.
“It is clear this administration is treating Congresswoman McIver’s actions differently than the actions of those who are on their side,” McIver’s attorney, Paul J. Fishman, said in a statement after Semper’s ruling in November. “It is also clear that this prosecution is designed to chill the Congresswoman’s lawful authority to conduct oversight and hold the administration to account.”
While the case looms large, McIver says she never had any intention of letting it dictate her life.
“I always wanted to be a mother,” she says. “I have gone through many health issues over the past couple of years, with my reproductive health, and I wanted to continue to try to have a baby because it’s been a dream of mine. It’s my womb, it’s my business, and that’s why I continue to try to grow my family.”
She adds, “I don’t want to be just remembered as LaMonica McIver, the congresswoman. I want to be remembered as LaMonica McIver, the mother of two beautiful children at home … a good mother and a good wife, a good daughter and a good sister.”
“Those are things, to me, that outlive us,” she says.
McIver’s legal battle with the Trump administration has been tough on her family. Her mother, she says, worries McIver will receive the maximum penalty if she is convicted, and a classmate of McIver’s daughter recently told her: “Your mom’s going to jail.”
Then there's the financial burden. McIver’s mounting legal fees are expected to exceed $1 million, The New York Times reported last month. House ethics rules prevent her from accepting any pro bono legal help.
“It’s always been worrying to me,” she says of the case and its potential outcome. “I am a mom of a 9-year-old girl. I have a husband. I have a family that is extremely worried in this moment. It’s not just the pregnancy. Of course, obviously, this adds an extra layer.”
McIver also worries how the demands of her defense, as well as those of her job representing the 800,000 residents of New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District, may affect her and her baby’s health.
“Stress is really a problem for women who are expecting, especially Black women dealing with the maternal health crisis that we are in in this country,” she says. “I don't want to stress myself out, even though I know I have to deal with the situation of this case.”
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any wealthy country. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Black women are roughly three times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause as White women.
“There are multiple layers that I’m dealing with,” McIver adds, “to make sure that I’m taking care of myself, taking care of my baby, but also taking care of the people that I’m responsible for in the 10th congressional district.”
She knows it won’t be — and hasn’t been — easy to juggle. But she's found reason for optimism. Much like her work on Capitol Hill, McIver says, she sees her pregnancy as a catalyst for change.
“We get to bring great humans into this world," she says, "to change it, right?”
By: Brooke Migdon
Source: People Magazine