A top House Democrat attacked President Donald Trump and Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security for “sowing chaos” after DHS agents detained a staffer at his New York office.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler slammed the administration’s tactics after Gothamist released a video that showed one agent handcuffing a crying staffer while another agent tried to enter Nadler’s office, which shares a building with an immigration courthouse. A second agent accused the office of “harboring rioters” after protesters outside the building railed against DHS’s decision to arrest a Bronx high school student.
“President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are sowing chaos in our communities, using intimidation tactics against both citizens and non-citizens in a reckless and dangerous manner,” Nadler said in a statement. “In the most recent and deeply troubling incident, DHS agents forcefully entered my Congressional office and handcuffed a member of my staff.”
Nadler, who previously served as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said he was “alarmed by the aggressive and heavy-handed tactics DHS is employing in New York City and across the country.”
Nadler warned that no one is immune to the Trump administration’s hardline intimidation tactics.
“If this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone—and it is happening,” Nadler said further in his statement to Gothamist Saturday. “I call on President Trump and DHS to halt the use of these dangerous tactics and abandon use of the expedited removal process, which denies due process to immigrants and citizens alike.”
DHS told Gothamist that the officers attempted to conduct a “security check” at the office on Wednesday after reports of protesters nearby. It claimed one of the “individuals” became “confrontational and physically blocked” agents from entering the office, though it said no arrests were made and everyone was “released without further incident.”
Neither a Nadler spokesperson nor DHS responded to an immediate request for further comment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Sunday the administration was “clearly trying to intimidate Democrats in the same way that they’re trying to intimidate the country.”
The incident followed a series of disputes between Noem’s DHS and Democrats. Federal agents arrested the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka, last month when he joined House Democrats on a visit to a new immigration detention center, though the administration later dropped criminal charges.
However, the administration later charged one of the Democrats, Rep. LaMonica McIver, with felony assault, claiming she used her forearms to block agents from arresting Baraka. McIver called the charges “purely political.”
Agents also arrested Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan after the government accused her of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest by leading him out of her courtroom. Democrats and former judges have blasted the arrest as an attack on the court system.
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