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Masked federal agents handcuffed and detained yet another Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday, this time in New York City.
Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate and New York City’s current comptroller, was arrested by federal agents, many of them masked, while accompanying another individual out of an immigration hearing at a courtroom in Lower Manhattan. Lander was released hours later.
In video of the arrest that has gone viral, Lander has his arms linked with the man and demands proof that the arresting agents are following the law. “I would like to see the judicial warrant,” Lander repeatedly says as a gaggle of officers — including ICE agents and other members of federal law enforcement —ushered the pair down a hallway of a federal immigration court building. An officer can be heard saying “take him in” before Lander is pushed up against the wall by a smaller huddle of men, several of whom do not appear to be wearing regular uniforms, and handcuffed. Lander has been escorting migrants to and from immigration hearings in New York for several weeks now.
“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens asking for a judicial warrant,” Lander said as he was cuffed. “I’m not obstructing, I’m standing right here in the hallway.” Hours later, Lander exited the courthouse in the company of New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.
In a statement to reporters following his release, Lander said that the charges against him had been dropped. “You guys all saw it on video, so you know exactly what happened,” Lander said. “I certainly did not assault an officer.”
“I’m going to sleep in my bed tonight, safe with my family […] I’ve got a lawyer. I don’t have to worry about my due process rights,” Lander told reporters and the crowd of supporters protesting his arrest. “At that elevator, I was separated from someone named Edgardo […] Edgardo is in ICE detention, and he’s not going to sleep in his bed tonight. So far as I know, he has no lawyer. He has been stripped of his due process rights.”
“So 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 continued.
Governor Hochul, who called the arrest “bullshit,” earlier this afternoon told gathered protesters that earlier in the day she had been “walking the streets of little Haiti” to talk to migrant New Yorkers who were “scared” about their future under the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The detention comes in the heat of the primary race for mayor, to be held on June 24. Zohran Mamdani, one of Lander’s opponents in the mayoral race, wrote a social media post in solidarity, insisting that Lander’s arrest “is fascism” and that “all New Yorkers must speak in one voice. Release him now.”
In a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin announced that Lander had been “arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” She added: “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
Trump’s administration has brought similar charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.). The member of Congress was indicted earlier this month after the administration accused her of assaulting an ICE officer after an oversight visit at a New Jersey detention center. The tour of the facility descended into chaos after agents arrested Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka on charges of trespassing that were later dropped. McIver denies the accusations against her.
Lander’s arrest comes just days after FBI agents tackled and handcuffed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) after he attempted to speak during a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.
In a speech on the Senate floor, which took place only minutes after Lander’s arrest, Padilla did not address the detention of the New Yorker. But he recounted that he has yet to be provided a reason for why he was tackled and handcuffed by federal agents.
“If that is what the administration is willing to do to a United States senator for having the authority [sic] to simply ask a question, imagine what they’ll do to any American who dares to speak up. If what you saw happen, can happen when the cameras are on, imagine not only what can happen, but what is happening in so many places where there are no cameras,” Padilla said.
