Federal agents detained New York City Comptroller Brad Lander inside a Lower Manhattan immigration court building Tuesday morning as he attempted to escort a man from his court appearance there.
Lander, who is also running for mayor in next week’s Democratic primary, was held inside the building for over four hours before he was eventually released without charges after an intervention by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“I know I will get due process and that my rights will be protected,” Lander said to a throng of supporters who gathered spontaneously in Foley Square that evening after his release.
“But Edgardo will sleep in an ICE detention facility God knows where tonight…he has been stripped of his due process rights in a country that is supposed to be founded on equal justice under law,” Lander continued, naming the immigrant detained by federal agents at the same time the comptroller was taken into custody.
Lander had been inside 26 Federal Plaza to observe hearings and accompany immigrants leaving routine court appearances. It was his third time observing federal immigration hearings since masked federal agents began staking out immigration courtrooms last month, targeting immigrants for arrest.
At around noon, Lander had linked arms with Edgardo leaving an immigration courtroom on the 12th floor, refusing to let go as agents pushed into the crowd attempting to pull him away.
In the chaotic scene, Lander asked the agents repeatedly to show a judicial warrant.
“You do not have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens,” Lander repeated, as the officers tightened handcuffs to his wrists.
The federal agents escorted him into an elevator, with one member of his NYPD security detail alongside him.
A reporter from THE CITY had overheard one agent say to another minutes before Lander’s arrest, “Do you want to arrest the Comptroller?”
It turns out the federal authorities did want to. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, “New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer, adding: “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
In a tweet with the same words, the official DHS X account added: “it is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment.”
THE CITY’s video of the incident shows Lander holding on to the person ICE is arresting but does not show him assaulting anyone.
Lander’s arrest provoked widespread outrage, and a drove of elected officials and mayoral candidates descended on 26 Federal Plaza calling for his immediate release. The group included Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens), who has co-endorsed Lander in the race for mayor.
“This is bullshit,” Gov. Kathy Hochul posted to social media on Tuesday afternoon. She arrived at 26 Federal Plaza later that afternoon, hugging Lander’s wife before going inside.
“I’m here to show support for Brad Lander and everyone else who’s in this situation,” she told reporters outside the building before going up.
“I’m here to show who we are as New Yorkers and who we’re standing for, and this is intolerable.”
She spent around an hour on the 9th floor of the building, talking to ICE agents there before Lander was eventually walked out by agents.
“How long is this going to take?” Hochul asked, chatting up the agents as she waited. “I don’t think he has a long rap sheet.”
A spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Adams, who has vowed not to publicly criticize Donald Trump, responded to the incident in a statement a spokesperson sent to the New York Post four hours after the comptroller’s arrest, saying: “today should not be about Brad Lander.”
The spokeswoman, Kayla Mamelak Altus, went on to say that “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.”
By then, at least two of political allies of Adams had mocked Lander online — including former mayoral Chief of Staff Frank Carone, who derided what he called an “Academy award” performance.
Asked after his release if the courthouse arrest had been a political stunt in the final days of his mayoral campaign, Lander pushed back.
“I did not come today expecting to get arrested,” Lander retorted, pointing to earlier visits to the court where he had been able to escort people out of the building without incident. “I came today just expecting to do that again, and I really think I failed today because my goal was to get Edgardo out of the building.”
Lander was the latest Democratic elected official treated harshly by the Trump administration while advocating for immigrants caught in the national crackdown. Last week federal agents tackled and handcuffed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) when he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a media event related to immigration.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was hit last week with federal charges stemming from her attempt in May to visit a privately operated migrant detention facility in Newark.
That city’s mayor, Ras Baraka, was also arrested in that confrontation, though the trespassing charges against him were later dropped by a magistrate judge who scolded federal prosecutors for “a significant misstep, since “an arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool.”
Moments ahead of Lander’s arrest, THE CITY had asked him why he was inside immigration court in the final days of the Democratic primary here, rather than out talking to voters.
“I don’t think there’s any place that’s more important to be right now than bearing witness and trying to stand up for the rule of law,” Lander said. “A big question on the campaign trail is how will you stand up to Donald Trump.”
In a dig at the frontrunner in mayoral race polls, Lander added, “Andrew Cuomo wants to tell a story about what he would do, but he views it as like a finger-poking ego fight — not show up and protect people.”
Cuomo, speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally with his union supporters, called Lander’s arrest “a disgusting display of the thuggery of Trump’s ICE.” It was, he said, “a direct consequence of Mayor Adams handing the keys to Donald Trump.”
