A New York City mayoral candidate has been handcuffed and arrested while escorting a defendant out of immigration court.
Video shows Brad Lander, a NYC comptroller, being placed in handcuffs and led into an elevator by men in plain clothes.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Mr Lander for “assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer”, a spokesperson said.
Mr Lander, who was released hours later, denied the accusation.
The incident comes amid an immigration crackdown under US President Donald Trump, who has directed agents to conduct raids and deport illegal immigrants.
It is also the latest confrontation between US agents and Democratic politicians.
Democrat says Lander was helping those ‘afraid to walk into a courthouse’
Mr Lander had spent the morning observing immigration court hearings and he had told an AP reporter that he was there to “accompany” some immigrants out of the building.
Videos of the incident show Mr Lander linking arms with a man through the hallway, demanding to see a judicial warrant, as agents try to separate them.
Brad Lander was placed under arrest by ICE and FBI agents. (AP: Olga Fedorova)
After more than 40 seconds, the two are wrestled apart and the comptroller is placed in handcuffs.
“You’re obstructing,” an agent is heard telling Mr Lander in the video.
“I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway,” Mr Lander said.
But ICE said he was undermining officials.
“It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,” said Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary.
“No-one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
After his release, Mr Lander told reporters that all he was trying to do was hold the arm of the man who was being detained and said he “certainly did not” assault an officer.
“I am happy to report that I am just fine. I lost a button.
“I believe it is important to show up and bear witness and accompany people.”
He added that the man “ripped” from his arms today “doesn’t have a lawyer” and would sleep in a federal detention centre.
“So I am going to keep coming here week after week,” he said, emphasising a need for nonviolence, to not give Mr Trump “an excuse to ratchet” things up.
Ahead of visiting the comptroller at the courthouse, New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the arrest.
“How dare they take an elected official who’s been going down there for weeks to escort people who are afraid to walk into a courthouse in the United States of America,” she said.
Brand Lander and his wife Meg Barnette walk next to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul after his release. (Reuters: Brendan McDermid)
Mr Lander’s attention-grabbing moment in the courthouse also prompted an outcry from his fellow Democrats in the mayoral race.
“This 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,” former governor Andrew Cuomo wrote on X.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan US attorney’s office said it was investigating Mr Lander’s actions and would decide later whether to charge him with a crime.
Lander not the first Democrat to be arrested
Mr Lander’s arrest comes a little more than a month after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on a trespassing charge outside a federal immigration detention centre.
Though the charge was later dropped, Mr Baraka has since filed a lawsuit over the incident.
Mr Bakara’s fellow Democratic representative, LaMonica McIver, was charged with assaulting and impeding federal agents stemming from her role at the same visit as the mayor.
She has denied the charges.
And just last week, security forcibly removed Democratic US senator Alex Padilla after he tried to ask Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem a question about the immigration raids during a press conference in LA.
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At the time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Mr Padilla had engaged in “disrespectful political theatre”.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Mr Padilla said he hoped the encounter would serve as a “wake-up call” for Americans.
“If that is what the administration is willing to do to a United States senator for having the audacity to simply ask a question, imagine what they’ll do to any American who dares to speak up,”
he said.
What is a comptroller?
It is essentially a chief financial officer.
As an independently elected official, Mr Lander safeguards New York City’s fiscal health, roots out waste, fraud and abuse in local government, and ensures that municipal agencies serve the needs of all locals.
ICE walks back limits on raids targeting hotels, restaurants and farms
US immigration officials will continue conducting immigration raids at farms, hotels, and restaurants, in what represents a rapid reversal of guidance issued last week to exempt those worksites.
On Monday ICE told leaders representing field offices across the country that they must continue to conduct raids at worksite locations.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told ICE officials last month that they needed to arrest at least 3,000 people a day. ICE has been averaging around 2,000 people a day.
A woman is detained during an ICE raid at a meat production plant in Omaha, Nebraska. (US ICE via Reuters)
Speaking to Reuters anonymously, one former official said some ICE field office heads raised concerns they could not meet the quota without raids at the businesses that had been exempted.
Monday’s reversal of that guidance came after Mr Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend that he wanted to “expand efforts to detain and deport illegal Aliens in America’s largest cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside”.
ABC/wires
