NYC Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander ARRESTED by ICE in Shocking Courtroom Standoff
City comptroller Brad Lander, who is running in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, was arrested on Tuesday at a federal immigration court in Manhattan.
Lander was taken into custody at the immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza.
Lander had demanded to see a judicial warrant for a man leaving an immigration hearing before grabbing the man’s shoulder and refusing to let go as ICE agents tried to drag the man away.
“I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant. Where is it?” Lander said.
Agents then managed to separate the two and arrested Lander as well after an officer gave the command, “Take him in.”
“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens,” Lander can be heard telling the agents as he is handcuffed.
“I’m not obstructing, I am standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant,” he said.
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Lander was later released and walked from the federal immigration courthouse alongside Governor Kathy Hochul and his wife before announcing the charges against him.
Lander and others had been attending the immigration court during hearings for several days.
He had been linking arms with illegal migrants who were likely to be deported in protests against ICE and the Trump administration.
On Tuesday, he linked arms with an illegal migrant whose asylum case had just been dismissed, his wife Meg Barnette said.
“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,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to the New York Post.
“No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
Meanwhile, Democrats in other blue cities have spent much of the last week protesting the Trump administration’s mass deportation operations.
Lander is up against former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is leading in the polls despite multiple scandals.