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Boston Globe
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Brad Lander tried to escort immigrants facing arrest. He's not alone.
Advertisement Before, volunteers might have accompanied immigrants to hearings, but only in recent weeks have they had to consider what happens when they leave 'because ICE wasn't waiting on the other side of the door before,' said Camille J. Mackler, the founder and executive director of Immigrant ARC, a collaborative of immigration legal services providers. 'We really are just there to bear witness in a nonviolent way.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Federal agents wait in a hallway outside New York City's main immigration court in lower Manhattan following the arrest of New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, June 17, 2025. JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NYT Lander, who is running for mayor, maintained that is what he was trying to do Tuesday when federal officers approached an immigrant named Edgardo to arrest him. Video shows Lander appearing to hold on to Edgardo and refusing to let go as officers were trying to arrest the man over Lander's protestations. Advertisement The Department of Homeland Security saw it differently. The agency accused Lander of assaulting and obstructing federal officers as they were performing their duties, all to boost his mayoral campaign. The altercation thrust the work of the volunteer escorts into the national debate about Trump's immigration crackdown, due process rights and the behavior of federal immigration agents. Why are people accompanying migrants at courthouses? The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency initiated a national operation last month to begin arresting certain immigrants as they leave court hearings. The new tactic works like this: An immigrant appears for a hearing in an immigration court to determine whether they can lawfully remain in the country. Suddenly, the government prosecutor asks the judge to dismiss the case. The dismissal terminates certain legal protections that the immigrant had, allowing ICE agents in the hallway to apprehend the person and place them in an expedited deportation process. As ICE began showing up at immigration courts, so did more and more volunteers — activists, faith leaders, lawyers and everyday New Yorkers looking to get involved. They often provide immigrants, many of whom lack lawyers, with legal guidance, though not necessarily representation. They pass out flyers written in Spanish, French, Arabic and other languages informing them of their rights and explaining the government's new arrest strategy. And they take down their name, country of origin and case number so that relatives can be contacted if they are detained and to look up where they are being held. Then, the volunteers try to walk with some migrants — especially those at risk of being arrested because their cases were just dismissed — out of the hearing rooms and past federal officers. 'They are armed, and a lot of them are masked,' said Allison Cutler, an immigration lawyer at the New York Legal Assistance Group, which provides legal help to low-income people, including immigrants. 'People are terrified as soon as they step foot out of the elevator.' Advertisement What can federal agents do? ICE officers are responsible for detaining noncitizens who are violating federal immigration laws. But federal officers are generally permitted to arrest anyone who attempts to obstruct an arrest, which is a federal crime. 'We can't have anyone interfering with our ICE arrest operations,' Todd Lyons, the ICE acting director, told Fox News after Lander's arrest. 'We've always said that if anyone impedes our arrest operations, no matter who you are, you will be taken into custody,' Lyons said. As of Wednesday, the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, which had said it was reviewing the incident, had not brought charges against Lander. Asked about volunteers accompanying people in immigration courts, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, said, 'Anyone who actively obstructs or assaults law enforcement, including U.S. citizens, will of course face consequences which include arrest.' Have the volunteers prevented arrests? The main goal of accompanying immigrants, volunteers say, is to provide comfort and safety to people who are often afraid of showing up in court, especially during the string of arrests, and to make sure they are not alone if they are detained. It is difficult to gauge whether volunteers are deterring ICE agents from moving in for arrests. Before he was detained, Lander had shown up at the courts twice and escorted out immigrant families who appeared at risk of arrest after their cases were dismissed, walking them by federal agents. 'Does this excessive accompaniment mean that somebody didn't get detained?' Mackler, the leader of Immigrant ARC, said. 'Obviously, we would love for that to be the outcome, but more important, the goal would be to make sure that the person isn't alone.' Advertisement Federal agents have continued to arrest immigrants even when they are surrounded by volunteers, occasionally leading to volatile altercations between the officers and activists. Lander had been appearing at immigration court in conjunction with Immigrant ARC. Mackler said that her organization had trained volunteers not to act in a way that would provoke or escalate a situation with law enforcement officers. 'Our instructions for our volunteers are to not engage or interfere with law enforcement,' she said. 'But I'm also not going to tell a New York City elected official how he shows up to protect New Yorkers.' Who else is showing up at the courts? Representative Jerrold Nadler at an immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in New York, June 18, 2025. JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NYT Immigration courts — which are operated by a branch of the Department of Justice called the Executive Office for Immigration Review — are open to the public. In recent weeks, they have attracted more immigration lawyers looking to help migrants who do not have attorneys and members of the public who observe and document court proceedings to ensure transparency and accountability. Visitors are generally allowed to sit in during hearings after passing through metal detectors in the lobbies of the three Manhattan courthouses that have immigration courts. Judges can close certain proceedings to the public, especially those involving people who are sharing sensitive personal information during asylum hearings. Democratic politicians have descended on the courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza, which also houses ICE offices where detained immigrants have sometimes been held for days in overcrowded conditions. On Wednesday, Reps. Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman, both Democrats, sought to conduct an oversight visit to the 10th floor but were denied access by the ICE deputy field office director, William Joyce. Advertisement 'Because we were told not to,' Joyce told the members of Congress during an exchange in the lobby. 'We will continue to go up the chain, and we will get answers,' Goldman later said at a news conference. This article originally appeared in .
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
New York mayoral candidate arrested by Ice: ‘Trump is looking to stoke conflict, weaponize fear'
As New York city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was hauled away by masked Ice agents on Tuesday, all he could think about was whether there was anything more he could do for the man he was trying to help, an immigrant New Yorker named Edgardo. Both men ended up detained, but unlike Edgardo's, Lander's ordeal was over after a few hours. By the time New York governor Katy Hochul marched him out of the courthouse – after proclaiming, of his arrest: 'This is bullshit' – videos and photos of the officers manhandling him had gone viral. The arrest of yet another elected official prompted widespread condemnation of another sign of the US's steady slide into authoritarianism. A host of New York politicians, along with a swelling crowd of angry New Yorkers, awaited Lander outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. (Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and mayoral race frontrunner, was a notable absence, though he did condemn the arrest.) 'I wasn't surprised there were a lot of folks outside angry both about the violations of the rights of immigrants and about Trump's efforts to undermine democracy,' Lander told the Guardian in an interview. 'The Trump administration has been very clear that they are looking to stoke conflict, weaponize fear, and undermine democracy, and here they are doing it,' he added. Lander was 'just fine', he told the crowd. He had lost a button in the commotion. But he would sleep in his bed and while no charges against him were filed, he would have had access to a lawyer if they had been. 'But Edgardo will sleep in an Ice detention facility God knows where tonight,' he said. 'He has been stripped of his due process rights in a country that is supposed to be founded on equal justice under law.' A day after the ordeal, Lander said he had no updates on Edgardo, a Spanish-speaking immigrant whom Lander had met just before they were both detained. Lander had been accompanying Edgardo as part of an organized effort to shield immigrants from agents who have been increasingly stalking them for arrest when they appear for their regularly scheduled court hearings. On Tuesday, the group watching proceedings at the court included four rabbis, in addition to Lander, his wife Meg Barnette, and other advocates. He's been showing up, he says, because people in the immigration court system are otherwise unprotected. 'This is one of the rights violations of this system,' he said. 'All these people in it with no lawyers and really no one, no advocates, no one looking out for them.' With early voting well under way and election day less than a week away, the New York City mayoral race is heating up – and Wednesday's arrest has significantly raised the visibility of Lander, a well-respected, long-time New York politician who has nonetheless struggled to gain recognition in what is largely a race between Cuomo and leftist Zohran Mamdani. (Mamdani rushed to the courthouse on Wednesday as soon as news of Lander's arrest broke.) Lander, who like Mamdani is pitching a progressive vision for a more affordable city, is also running on his years-long experience with city government and his bridge-building skills. Lander is the third Democratic politician recently detained by Department of Homeland Security officials in connection with Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. In this distinction, he joins the California senator Alex Padilla, recently handcuffed and forcibly removed from a DHS press conference, and Newark mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested while protesting outside an immigration detention center in New Jersey last month. Lander sees in the targeting of outspoken Democratic politicians the fulfillment of the Trump administration's promise to 'liberate' cities such as Los Angeles and New York. He said it was 'strange' to find himself a casualty of the administration's crackdown. 'But unfortunately not that strange, as Trump has named New York City on the list of places where they are planning to both ratchet up immigration enforcement and put pressure on elected officials.' In recent weeks Ice agents have been ordered to ramp up arrests, even without warrants. In a video of Lander's arrest, he is heard asking Ice agents multiple times for a warrant – which they do not produce – before telling them, as they place him in handcuffs, that they 'don't have the authority to arrest US citizens asking for a judicial warrant'. The Ice agents who arrested him knew he was an elected official, Lander said. He tried to learn more about them while he was detained. 'I asked a few questions just to understand who they were,' he said. They were also immigrants – one a Pakistani Muslim resident of Brooklyn, the other an Indo-Guyanese man from Queens. 'I asked about their shifts. I hear that Ice agents are working a lot of hours right now,' he said. 'Brad's arrest was shocking – not in the violence, not in the lawlessness, because we've seen this directed at immigrants and citizens profiled as immigrants – but in the decision from Ice to inflict that violence on a sitting elected citywide official,' said Sophie Ellman-Golan, an organizer with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, of which Lander has been a member for decades. Along with JFREJ, he has been working with Immigrant Act, another advocacy group, in shifts to accompany immigrants to court hearings. Lander has gained some momentum after challenging Cuomo during a recent mayoral debate and cross-endorsing fellow progressive Mamdani. But he consistently polled in third place in the race, well behind the other two. Lander called out the current mayor – Eric Adams, who offered little sympathy – of having 'sold out our city' through corruption. He said Cuomo 'made no effort whatsoever to reach out to most New Yorkers' and that he and Mamdani cross-endorsed one another 'because we fundamentally agree that Andrew Cuomo is utterly unfit to be mayor of this city'. He cited Cuomo's hesitation when he was asked in a recent debate whether he had visited a mosque. 'He has nothing to say to Muslim New Yorkers,' said Lander. 'He is an abusive bully who doesn't even love New York City and is just in it for himself.' While some of his supporters criticised him over the Mamdani endorsement – largely due to Mamdani's openly pro-Palestinian views – Lander said that here was 'an enormous outpouring of goodwill for it'. 'It really did prompt a sense of, 'Oh, politics could be not just about individuals looking out for themselves, but trying to build something broader that would build a more aspirational vision for the city, and help people come together around it.' 'Obviously, I am putting my case out for why I will be the best mayor of New York City,' he said, citing recent endorsements as a sign his campaign is surging. But, he added, he also hoped to promote a politics 'that's trying to bring people together across divides, and in this case, having one Jewish New Yorker and one Muslim New Yorker cross-endorse in that way offers a hopeful project'. 'Whoever wins, I intend to continue to pursue that hopeful politics.'
New York Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Brad Lander Tried to Escort Immigrants Facing Arrest. He's Not Alone.
When Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, was arrested on Tuesday by federal agents at an immigration courthouse in Manhattan, Mr. Lander said he had simply been trying to escort an immigrant whom agents wanted to detain. His arrest underscored a trend that has emerged in New York City's immigration courts: A growing number of volunteers and activists have begun showing up to escort immigrants out of courthouses amid President Trump's month-old campaign to arrest people showing up for routine hearings. During the past few weeks, a loose network of immigration activists and advocates has sprung up in the city's three main immigration courts. Their goal, they say, is to help immigrants who show up without lawyers to navigate a labyrinthine and daunting system, and to accompany migrants past federal officers, who are often masked and not wearing uniforms. Before, volunteers might have accompanied immigrants to hearings, but only in recent weeks have they had to consider what happens when they leave 'because ICE wasn't waiting on the other side of the door before,' said Camille J. Mackler, the founder and executive director of Immigrant ARC, a collaborative of immigration legal services providers. 'We really are just there to bear witness in a nonviolent way.' Mr. Lander, who is running for mayor, maintained that is what he was trying to do on Tuesday when federal officers approached an immigrant named Edgardo to arrest him. Video shows Mr. Lander appearing to hold on to Edgardo and refusing to let go as officers were trying to arrest the man over Mr. Lander's protestations. The Department of Homeland Security saw it differently. The agency accused Mr. Lander of assaulting and obstructing federal officers as they were performing their duties, all to boost his mayoral campaign. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Global News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Global News
Trump running a ‘fascist regime': Brad Lander reacts after ICE arrest
New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander has spoken out against U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing him of operating a 'fascist regime,' after being detained by immigration authorities at a Manhattan courthouse. Lander was accompanying an immigrant out of a courtroom on Tuesday when masked federal agents apprehended him. Footage of the chaotic incident shows Lander being manhandled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as he and a group of his staff walked with a man, whom he later identified as Edgardo, from his hearing. In the video, Lander can be heard asking federal agents if they have a judicial warrant. 'I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant…. Where is it?' he says, encircled by masked agents. Story continues below advertisement 'You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens,' he told officials as they cuffed his hands behind his back. At a press conference shortly after his arrest, Lander's wife, Meg Barnette, who recalled being 'shoved out of the way' during the incident, said her husband was 'swarmed by a number of federal agents' when he tried to link arms with a man after his immigration court hearing was dismissed. Edgardo was also arrested and taken to an ICE detention facility, Lander said in an interview after being released. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy After being released, Lander told political podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen on Tuesday that he was held in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detention facility for about three-and-a-half hours, but swiftly turned his attention to the man he was trying to help. View image in full screen New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents outside federal immigration court on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. Olga Fedorova / The Associated Press 'I'm going to sleep at home in my bed tonight, safe with my family. But Edgardo, who I was trying to accompany, he is in ICE detention. God knows where he's going to sleep tonight … and who knows in what state? He has no lawyer. No one even knows to look for him. He has been stripped of his due process rights, and the right asylum seekers have to present the credible fear of persecution, ' he said. Story continues below advertisement .@bradlander: "I was in a DHS detention for about 3.5 hours… I'm going to sleep at home in my bed tonight, safe with my family. But at Edgardo, who I was trying to accompany, he is in ICE detention. God knows where he's going to sleep tonight… And who knows what state. He has… — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) June 18, 2025 Lander has made several trips to immigration court in recent weeks, after DHS changed its practices by dismissing asylum cases, which Lander told CNN equates to 'stripping people of their asylum seeker status' and subjects them to 'expedited removal' from the U.S., adding later on X that 'we will all be worse off if we let Donald Trump and his fascist regime undermine the rule of law.' We will all be worse off if we let Donald Trump and his fascist regime undermine the rule of law. — Brad Lander (@bradlander) June 18, 2025 Story continues below advertisement Lander said he will keep returning to court 'week after week so make sure the people's rights are protected.' He is a candidate in New York's Democratic mayoral primary. Early voting in the contest is underway, with the election set for next week.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander arrested by Ice agents
Brad Lander, New York City's comptroller and a mayoral candidate, was arrested on Tuesday by masked federal agents while visiting an immigration court and accompanying a person out of a courtroom. In a statement to the Guardian, assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin from the Department of Homeland Security said Lander 'was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer'. Upon his release, Lander said he 'certainly did not' assault an officer. Lander appeared at 26 Federal Plaza to observe immigration hearings involving individuals marked for potential deportation. He told an Associated Press reporter that he was there to 'accompany' some immigrants out of the building. Tuesday's trip to an immigration court was Lander's third over the last month. He was arrested, according to video footage of the incident, as he and his staff walked with an immigrant – who Lander later identified as 'Edgardo' – who had their case dismissed pending appeal earlier in the day, per AMNY. Lander can be seen and heard in videos of the incident asking the immigration officials if they have a judicial warrant. Additional footage of the arrest shows Lander telling the officials: 'I'm not obstructing. I'm standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant. Lander appears to be holding on to Edgardo's shoulder as the officials move him towards an elevator. 'I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant,' says Lander. The officials, two of whom were wearing masks, then pinned Lander to a wall and put him in handcuffs. 'You don't have the authority to arrest US citizens asking for a judicial warrant,' Lander can be heard saying. Immigration lawyers told the New York Times that officials do not need judicial warrants to make arrests in immigration courts because they are public spaces. Lander's wife posted an update on her husband's Twitter/X account less than an hour after the incident. 'Hi, this is Meg Barnette, Brad's wife,' she wrote, adding: 'While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE. This is still developing, and our team is monitoring the situation closely.' In a news conference after the arrest, Barnette said she was 'extraordinarily proud' of her husband and called the ordeal 'shocking and unacceptable'. Masked agents from several federal agencies were seen lining the halls of 26 Federal Plaza on Tuesday morning, including Ice, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the FBI and the treasury department, according to reporters on the scene from the City. Video and news of the arrest made the rounds on social media. Zohran Mamdani, a mayoral candidate who also cross-endorsed Lander, called out the arrest on X: 'This is fascism and all New Yorkers must speak in one voice. Release him now.' Julia Salazar, a New York state senator, called the arrest 'more evidence that Ice agents are flagrantly breaking the law'. '[Lander] knows his rights, and he was speaking up for the rights of others. Ice agents responded by unlawfully arresting him and refusing to answer basic questions,' she said. Andrew Cuomo, former New York governor and Lander's mayoral opponent, wrote on X that the arrest is 'the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump's ICE out of control – one can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE. Fear of separation, fear of being taken from their schools, fear of being detained without just cause. This is not who we are. This must stop, and it must stop now.' Mamdani also appeared at the aforementioned pop-up press conference that Barnette spoke at, telling the crowd: 'We have to be clear that, in [Lander's] ask and in their response, we saw that Ice has no interest in the law, it has no interest in order. '[Ice] only has an interest in terrorizing people across this country. In this exact moment, New Yorkers and Americans are looking to leaders to meet this moment, to showcase the courage that is necessary,' he said, before adding: 'This is not about an election. This is about ensuring that we protect the city and the country that we love. This is about ensuring that immigrant New Yorkers who come here for regular check-ins do not need to fear being separated from their families in the most brutal and cruel ways imaginable. We know that today's arrest is but one example of what Ice is doing every single day across this country.' A demonstration broke out outside 26 Federal Plaza on Tuesday afternoon, with a crowd of supporters shouting 'free Brad Lander'. Protesters held up placards saying 'fascist minion' and 'immigrants are New York' while surrounded by a tight cordon of police and metal barricades. Public entry to the building was closed despite it being a public building. New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, called the arrest 'bullshit' on social media and to reporters. She later said in a news conference that the charges against Lander had been dropped late on Tuesday afternoon. 'To my knowledge, there are no charges. The charges have been dropped. He walked out of there a free man,' she said. Upon his release, Lander said at the same news conference that he was 'just fine' and only 'lost a button'. He went on to add that this was not the case for Edgardo, the man who'se arrest he was challenging. '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,' Lander said, later adding: 'We are normalizing family separation. We are normalizing due process rights violations. We are normalizing the destruction of constitutional democracy, and we're not going to stand by and let it happen.' Lander's arrest comes as federal immigration officials continue to make arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the US. As the Guardian reported on Sunday, between early January, right before the inauguration, and June, there has been an 807% increase in the arrest of immigrants with no criminal record. The arrest also bore similarities to that of Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration's immigration polices, who was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles last week. Much like the criticism of Lander's arrest, Padilla's arrest was widely lambasted, with Kamala Harris, the former vice-president, calling the incident 'a shameful and stunning abuse of power'. Lander's arrest was also just one week before the Democratic primary for mayor. His opponents include Cuomo, Mamdani, Adrienne Adams, Scott Stringer, Michael Blake and others. Along with Mamdani, Hochul, Stringer, Blake and Adams showed up to support Lander at the site where he was arrested. Hochul was later seen inside 26 Federal Plaza seeking answers from Ice about the arrest. 'How long is this going to take, I don't think he has a long rap sheet,' she reportedly said to agents. Ed Pilkington contributed reporting
