NYC Comptroller Brad Lander arrested at immigration court
NEW YORK CITY (WPIX) – New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court Tuesday as he was trying to “accompany” a person out of a courtroom.
A spokesperson for Lander's campaign said he was taken by "masked agents" and detained. The person Lander was walking out of the courtroom was also arrested.
"While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]," a spokesperson for Lander's campaign told Nexstar's WPIX.
In the moments before Lander was handcuffed, agents could be seen trying to physically separate Lander from the man they had come to detain, whom lander was linking arms with, the Associated Press reported. Video of the encounter obtained by WPIX shows Lander being put into handcuffs by two people not wearing uniforms. Nearby, there is an officer in a vest that reads "Police, Federal Agent." Lander is taken into an elevator, as onlookers ask where he will be taken.
Another video posted to social media by Lander's wife shows a tense scene as officers walk Lander through a hallway, almost bringing him to the ground at one point. In the video, Lander can be heard asking, "Do you have a judicial warrant?"
Lander repeatedly asks to see a warrant, saying, "I would like to see the warrant and then I will let go."
"You don't have the warrant, you don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens," Lander can be heard saying in the video.
In an unrelated news conference last week, Lander explained that he has been accompanying people out of immigration court. "The immigration courts are very chaotic right now. There are masked FBI and ICE agents in the elevator banks waiting for people," Lander said.
The episode occurred as federal immigration officials are conducting large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the country. In many cases, immigrants are arrested after a judge grants a government request to dismiss their case, making them eligible for expedited removal.
“They remove any opportunity for due process,” Lander had told reporters earlier in the day after witnessing another person’s hearing.
Lander’s detainment comes a little more than a month after Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on a trespassing charge outside a federal immigration detention center in his city.
This story comprises reporting from the Associated Press