Abu Sabet: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander (D), a candidate for mayor, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Tuesday as he guided a defendant out of immigration court.
Lander campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement that masked agents took him and ICE detained him as he was escorting a defendant out of the court. She said the situation is still developing, and the campaign is monitoring it closely.
Lander was later released from custody. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said at a news conference that the charges have been dropped.
The Hill has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to confirm if officials declined to pursue charges.
Video of the incident shows Lander leading the defendant through the hallway and requesting that the agents show a judicial warrant to detain them. “I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant. Where is it?” Lander said to an agent.
An agent responded that they had the warrant in their hand, and Lander said he wanted to see it before he was pushed against a wall and put in handcuffs. As he was being detained, he told them that they don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens. An agent told him he was obstructing their work, to which Lander responded, “I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Lander of assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.
“Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers face a 413% increase in assaults against them—it is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,” McLaughlin said. “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
Lander told The Associated Press that he spent the morning observing immigration court proceedings and intended to “accompany” some immigrants out of the building. Other candidates running in the mayor’s race quickly condemned Lander’s detention.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is the front-runner in the race, said the incident was the “latest example of the extreme thuggery of [President] Trump’s ICE out of control,” adding that “one can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE.”
“Fear of separation, fear of being taken from their schools, fear of being detained without just cause,” he said in a post on the social platform X. “This is not who we are. This must stop, and it must stop now.”
State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has been placing second in polling, called for Lander’s release.
“Standing up for our immigrant neighbors should be celebrated, not condemned,” he said. “All New Yorkers must speak in one voice and share one message: release Brad now.”
Meg Barnett, Lander’s wife, said at a press conference after his arrest that Tuesday was Lander’s third time observing immigration court in New York. She said she joined him, and they sat in multiple courtrooms, where they saw immigrants having their cases dismissed with “completely inadequate explanation as to what that means.”
She said they weren’t told their cases being dismissed means ICE agents could “forcibly” remove them.
Barnett said Lander had a security detail from the New York City Police Department with him and knows he’ll be fine, but nobody else in the building has the same privileges.
“I am very, very proud of Brad. I always am, and this is just one more example of him standing up and doing what’s right,” she said. “He doesn’t just talk about it. He does it. He means it. It’s how he’s been, and it’s how he will continue to be.”
Lander told reporters after his release that he’s “happy to report that I’m just fine,” and he’s grateful to hear that charges aren’t being brought against him. But he said if the charges are pursued, he has a lawyer and isn’t concerned about his right to due process.
But he said the immigrant that he was with, named Edgardo, is in ICE detention and has been “stripped of his due process rights by a government and a judge that owe him a credible fear hearing before they deport him.”
“I will be fine, but Edgardo is not going to be fine, and the rule of law is not fine, and our constitutional democracy is not fine,” Lander said
Lander is not the first public official to be detained by ICE during the second Trump administration. Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside an ICE detention center last month, and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) is facing federal charges following a clash as she and other lawmakers attempted to see him.
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