Brad Lander, has been arrested on Tuesday in an immigration court at Bajo Manhattan. The current Comptroller of the city was arrested by agents of the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE) while escorting a migrant outside the court to prevent the individual from being detained by federal immigration agents, who have been carrying out dozens of arrests in the courts of the Great Apple in recent weeks.
The moment of his arrest was captured in videos recorded by journalists within the court. In the recordings Lander appears next to a man in a hall when several federal agents, some of them with masks and countryman dresses, approach both of them in an apparent attempt to stop the migrant man. The agents try to take the man but Lander does not release it by the arm. Among the struggles with the agents, the candidate is heard to ask repeatedly if they have a court order to arrest the individual: “I will release it if they teach me the court order. Where is it? Let me see it.”
Finally, the agents separate Lander from the migrant and immobilize it against a wall to stop it. “You have no authority to arrest US citizens,” Lander is heard while they put the wives. “I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hall. I asked to see the court order.” The candidate was subsequently taken to an elevator. The AP agency has confirmed that the migrant that Lander tried to protect was also arrested.
Lander is currently the New York Comptroller, an independent -elected official who acts as a financial director and main auditor of the city. He is also one of the nine democratic candidates for mayor of the most populous city in the country. Local primaries are June 24, and the early vote is already underway.
Lander had spent the morning watching views in the immigration court located in 26 Federal Plaza, in southern Manhattan. It is not the first time that he did: according to his office, he has done so three times before, to “accompany” some immigrants at the exit of the building where federal immigration agents have been arrested immigrants during their judicial appointments, as part of a national effort by the administration of Donald Trump to increase the daily figure of immigrant arrests.
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