New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who is running for mayor, was arrested by federal agents at a Manhattan immigration courthouse on Tuesday, after he held on to a man that authorities were seemingly trying to detain.
Lander, a Democrat, went to an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan to observe immigration court hearings. There have been a growing number of reports in recent weeks of undocumented immigrants being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents when showing up for court proceedings.
The incident on Tuesday was caught on video by a reporter at The City. Lander can be seen in the footage standing by a man in the hallway when authorities approach them, seemingly to detain the person the comptroller is near. Lander repeatedly asks the agents if they have a judicial warrant. As the officials escort the man down the hall, Lander follows behind, holding onto him.
“I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant,” Lander can be heard saying in the video. “Where is it?”
Agents try to pull Lander away from the man, eventually pinning him to a wall and handcuffing him. An agent can be heard telling Lander that he was “obstructing,” to which Lander replies, “I’m not obstructing; I’m standing right here in the hallway.”
“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens asking for a judicial warrant,” Lander can be heard saying in the video.
Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, posted from his X account, “While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE.” Barnette shared a video of the incident, which shows authorities taking Lander down the hallway and into an elevator in handcuffs.
The mayoral candidate’s arrest comes after Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was forcibly removed and handcuffed from a press conference on June 12, after he interrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was speaking about the federal government’s immigration enforcement plans in Los Angeles. Padilla, who was not arrested or detained in the incident, later said he had wanted to hear what Noem was sharing at the press conference because he hadn’t received replies to inquiries he had sent to her department requesting further details on its immigration enforcement plans in his state.
Tensions have mounted in the U.S. over President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation operation. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Los Angeles earlier this month to protest ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants. In a rare and controversial exercise of presidential power, Trump mobilized the National Guard to quell the protests, against the wishes of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. This past weekend, more than 1,500 demonstrations were held across the country to protest the Trump Administration.
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