New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was detained inside a Lower Manhattan immigration court building Tuesday morning by masked federal agents as he attempted to escort a man from his court appearance there.
Moments ahead of his detention, Lander had linked arms with the man leaving an immigration courtroom on the 12th floor, refusing to let go as masked federal agents pushed into the crowd attempting to pull the man away.
In the chaotic scene at around noon, Lander asked the agents repeatedly to show a judicial warrant.
“You do not have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens,” Lander repeated, as the officers tightened handcuffs to his wrists.
The federal agents escorted him into an elevator, with one member of his NYPD security detail alongside him.
A reporter from The City had overheard one agent say to another minutes before Lander’s arrest, “Do you want to arrest the Comptroller?”
It wasn’t immediately clear what charges, if any, the mayoral candidate will face. A spokesperson for ICE didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Masked agents from several federal agencies had lined the halls of 26 Federal Plaza Tuesday morning, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the FBI and even the Treasury Department.
“While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE,” Dora Pekec, Lander’s campaign spokesperson said in a statement. “This is still developing and we are monitoring the situation closely.”
Last week federal agents tackled and handcuffed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) when he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a media event related to immigration. Separately, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was hit with federal charges stemming from her earlier attempt to visit a privately operated migrant detention facility in Newark.
Lander was making his third trip to accompany immigrants attending court hearings over the last month as federal agents, often masked, have begun staking out courtrooms to detain people leaving what had been routine hearings. He is the only mayoral candidate who’s done so.
Moments ahead of Lander’s arrest, THE CITY asked him why he was inside immigration court in the final days of the Democratic primary here, rather than out talking to voters.
“I don’t think there’s any place that’s more important to be right now than bearing witness and trying to stand up for the rule of law,” Lander said. “A big question on the campaign trail is how will you stand up to Donald Trump.”
In a dig at the polling frontrunner in the mayoral race, Lander added, “Andrew Cuomo wants to tell a story about what he would do, but he views it as like a finger-poking ego fight — not show up and protect people.”
Ben Fractenberg contributed reporting.