NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander released after ICE arrest for allegedly ‘assaulting' officer
NEW YORK — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was released from custody late Tuesday after being arrested inside a Manhattan courthouse by ICE agents who claimed he assaulted one of them while trying to observe immigration proceedings amid the Trump administration's 'mass deportation' crackdown.
It wasn't immediately clear if Lander — whose arrest drew immediate and widespread condemnation — would actually face assault charges.
About five hours after his arrest inside 26 Federal Plaza, Lander, joined by his wife and Gov. Kathy Hochul, walked out to cheers and applause from supporters gathered outside the courthouse.
Hochul told reporters 'there are no charges' against Lander. 'He walks out of there a free man,' she said.
But a spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, which is headed by Trump appointee Jay Clayton, left the door open to potentially prosecuting Lander.
'The SDNY is continuing to investigate the actions involving New York City Comptroller Brad Lander at 26 Federal Plaza today,' the spokesman, Nicholas Biase, said before noting it's against federal law to assault law enforcement officers, destroy property and obstruct official proceedings. 'The Department of Justice will prosecute violations of federal law.'
Biase's statement came after Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for President Trump's Department of Homeland Security, said earlier in the day Lander 'was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer' at 26 Federal Plaza, where asylum cases are heard.
'It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,' McLaughlin said in a statement. 'No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.'
Speaking alongside Hochul, Lander, a leading candidate in next week's Democratic mayoral primary, said he 'certainly did not assault an officer' and explained he was accompanying an immigrant named Edgardo when the agents moved in to arrest him.
'All I tried to do was hold Edgardo's arm and asked the ICE agents, 'Do you have a warrant?' And they would not show me the warrant, and I said I'd let go of his arm as soon as they showed it to me, and they did not show it to me, and you saw what happened,' said Lander.
The comptroller said he was treated fine otherwise, although he lost a button on his jacket.
'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,' he said. 'I really think I failed today, because my goal was to get Edgardo out of the building so he can get back to his family. We are not going to allow Donald Trump to wreck the rule of law, to deny people due process and to turn our country into something that doesn't meet its obligations under international law.'
Lander's arrest comes as Trump's administration has stoked intense outrage by rounding up immigrants in deportation raids at courthouses across the country. Many have been detained as they show up for routine check-ins on their asylum claims, facing no criminal charges or other reason to believe they could be deported.
Lander is among a group of local officials who have shown up at 26 Federal Plaza in recent weeks to observe proceedings and provide assistance to immigrants.
In video of his arrest provided by his team, Lander could be seen linking arms with the man identified as Edgardo before getting surrounded by a group of masked ICE agents who pressed him up against a wall and handcuffed him on the 12th floor of 26 Federal Plaza.
'I'm not obstructing, I'm standing right here in the hallway, I asked to see the judicial warrant,' Lander can be heard saying in the video as the agents cuff him. 'You don't have authority to arrest a U.S. citizen asking for a judicial warrant.'
'Where are you taking the comptroller?' one of Lander's aides can be heard shouting at the agents as they take him into an elevator and disappear.
Within minutes of his arrest, the comptroller's wife, supporters and local elected officials gathered outside 26 Federal Plaza, chanting, 'Free Brad Lander,' and excoriating his detainment.
'I am extraordinarily proud of my husband for so many reasons, never more so than today,' his wife Meg Barnette said. She added she's confident he will be fine while voicing concern that 'all of the other folks in that building are risking having their families torn apart … It's an abomination and it is not what we stand for in this country.'
Several of Lander's opponents in next Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary also came to his defense, including Scott Stringer, Michael Blake, Adrienne Adams and runner-up candidate Zohran Mamdani, who all showed up outside 26 Federal Plaza. Mamdani said the comptroller's arrest shows ICE 'only has an interest in terrorizing people.'
Before showing up to the courthouse, Hochul, New York's highest-ranking Democrat, tweeted about Lander's arrest: 'This is bulls–t.'
Andrew Cuomo, the front-runner in the Democratic mayoral race who has been a harsh critic of Lander, said the comptroller did 'absolutely nothing wrong' and laid some blame on Mayor Adams.
'Make no mistake: this kind of conduct is the direct result of Mayor Eric Adams handing the keys of our great City over to Donald Trump,' Cuomo said in a statement, a reference to the Trump administration's highly controversial dismissal of the incumbent's corruption indictment.
Adams, also a frequent Lander critic, declined to comment on his arrest when asked about it at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.
Later, the mayor's spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said, 'Today should not be about Brad Lander. It's about making sure all New Yorkers — regardless of their documentation status — feel safe enough to use public resources, like dialing 911, sending their kids to school, going to the hospital, or attending court appearances, and do not instead hide in the shadows.'
The courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza has been an especially hot target for ICE in recent weeks, with round-ups of immigrants happening in the building on an almost daily basis.
ICE agents conducting the arrests have been wearing masks during the raids because Trump's White House says they fear for their safety.
The agents have been able to detain immigrants showing up at the courthouse for routine check-ins because Trump administration officials have asked judges to dismiss their asylum claims, making them subject to deportation.
Some immigration judges have recently expressed concern about the unusual tactic.
That includes just earlier this week when Judge Olivia Cassin reinstated an asylum petition filed by a 20-year-old Bronx public school student from Venezuela who was detained by ICE after getting his case dismissed last month when he showed up at 26 Federal Plaza for a check-in.
_____
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
19 minutes ago
- Politico
Judge says government can't limit passport sex markers for many transgender, nonbinary people
BOSTON — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from limiting passport sex markers for many transgender and nonbinary Americans. Tuesday's ruling from U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick means that transgender or nonbinary people who are without a passport or need to apply for a new one can request a male, female or 'X' identification marker rather than being limited to the marker that matches the gender assigned at birth. In an executive order signed in January, the president used a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader conception of gender. The order said a person is male or female and rejected the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. Kobick first issued a preliminary injunction against the policy last month, but that ruling applied only to six people who joined with the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit over the passport policy. In Tuesday's ruling she agreed to expand the injunction to include transgender or nonbinary people who are currently without a valid passport, those whose passport is expiring within a year, and those who need to apply for a passport because theirs was lost or stolen or because they need to change their name or sex designation. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government failed to show that blocking its policy would cause it any constitutional injury, Kobick wrote, or harm the executive branch's relations with other countries. The transgender and nonbinary people covered by the preliminary injunction, meanwhile, have shown that the passport policy violates their constitutional rights to equal protection, Kobick said. 'Even assuming a preliminary injunction inflicts some constitutional harm on the Executive Branch, such harm is the consequence of the State Department's adoption of a Passport Policy that likely violates the constitutional rights of thousands of Americans,' Kobick wrote. Kobick, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, sided with the ACLU's motion for a preliminary injunction, which stays the action while the lawsuit plays out. 'The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny,' Kobick wrote in the preliminary injunction issued earlier this year. 'That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard.' In its lawsuit, the ACLU described how one woman had her passport returned with a male designation while others are too scared to submit their passports because they fear their applications might be suspended and their passports held by the State Department. Another mailed in their passport Jan. 9 and requested to change their name and their sex designation from male to female. That person was still waiting for their passport, the ACLU said in the lawsuit, and feared missing a family wedding and a botany conference this year. In response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration argued that the passport policy change 'does not violate the equal protection guarantees of the Constitution.' It also contended that the president has broad discretion in setting passport policy and that plaintiffs would not be harmed since they are still free to travel abroad.
UPI
25 minutes ago
- UPI
Judge expands order against Trump administration's passport gender policy
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday expanded an order against the State Department's passport policy to include all applicants who are transgender or nonbinary. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo June 17 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday expanded an order against the State Department's passport policy to include all applicants who are transgender or nonbinary, saying the "passport policy violates their constitutional right to equal protection of the laws." Judge Julia Kobick granted a first preliminary injunction in April, which blocked the State Department's policy for only six of seven people who originally sued. On Tuesday, the judge expanded it to plaintiffs who were added to the suit, and nearly all trans and nonbinary Americans seeking new passports or changes. Kobick, an appointee of former President Biden, wrote that the six named plaintiffs and the new class of plaintiffs "face the same injury: they cannot obtain a passport with a sex designation that aligns with their gender identity." "The plaintiffs have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the Passport Policy violates their constitutional right to equal protection of the laws and runs afoul of the safeguards of the APA," Kobick wrote in Tuesday's opinion, while referring to the Administrative Procedure Act which governs how policies are adopted. After taking office earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, proclaiming the United States recognizes only two sexes -- male and female -- and that those sexes "are not changeable." Trump then ordered government-issued identification documents, including U.S. passports, to reflect a person's sex at birth. "We will no longer issue U.S. passports or Consular Reports of Birth Abroad with an X marker," according the State Department. "We will only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer's biological sex at birth." Under the Biden administration, passport holders could self-select gender designation, including "unspecified" which was designated by the letter X. The Trump administration appealed Kobick's ruling in April. On Tuesday, Kobick wrote that forcing transgender and nonbinary people to choose between two sexes makes them more vulnerable to discrimination. "Absent preliminary injunctive relief, these plaintiffs may effectively be forced to out themselves as transgender or non-binary every time they present their passport," Kobick wrote. The legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts celebrated Tuesday's ruling and vowed to "continue to fight." "This decision acknowledges the immediate and profound negative impact that the Trump administration's passport policy has on the ability of people across the country to travel for work, school and family," Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. "The Trump administration's passport policy attacks the foundations of the right to privacy and the freedom for all people to live their lives safely and with dignity," Rossman added. "We will continue to fight to stop this unlawful policy once and for all."
Business Insider
27 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Trump weighs possible U.S. strike against Iran, WSJ reports
U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing a range of potential actions in response to a recent armed conflict between Israel and Iran, including a possible U.S. strike against Iran, and met with top White House advisers to discuss the matter on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing administration officials. The news comes after Trump earlier posted on Truth Social that the U.S. is aware of the location of Iran supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei but had opted not to take any action, then saying 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,' the report notes. The White House has previously said it won't join Israel's attacks, the report says. Confident Investing Starts Here:
