NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander released after chaotic arrest by ICE agents at immigration court
City Comptroller Brad Lander was dramatically arrested by ICE agents at a federal immigration courthouse in Manhattan Tuesday — in a chaotic, caught-on-camera moment that will likely give his humdrum mayoral campaign a boost.
The progressive Democrat spent about four hours in custody before he ambled out of 26 Federal Plaza, escorted by his wife and Gov. Kathy Hochul, and announced the assault and obstruction charges against him were dropped.
Speaking to reporters and supporters outside, Lander wasted no time blasting incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Democratic mayoral primary frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, declaring New Yorkers “deserve a mayor who will protect the rights of immigrants.”
“I’m happy to report I’m just fine, I lost a button,” Lander — who has been polling third behind Cuomo and Democratic socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the Dem primary — said to laughs outside the courthouse.
When Lander was asked if he hoped to pull a political stunt at the courthouse, he said this was his third visit in recent weeks to the immigration hearings.
Eye-popping video showed Lander being manhandled and cuffed by the feds after the comptroller vocally protested masked federal agents hauling away a man — whom the comptroller later identified as “Eduardo” — leaving an immigration hearing.
Lander repeatedly demanded to see a judicial warrant as he kept his hand clutched on the detainee’s shoulder, but the agents did not produce one, video obtained by The Post shows.
After Lander refused to let go, an officer could be heard saying, “Take him in,” prompting agents to cuff him.
“You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens,” Lander repeated in protest, video shows.
“I’m not obstructing, I am standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant. … You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens asking for a judicial warrant.”
Lander was arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security, said.
“Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers face a 413% increase in assaults against them — it is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,” she said in a statement. “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”
Footage posted by an amNY reporter showed no obvious assault by Lander, who was pulled away from the immigrant by several federal agents. Sources contended Lander pushed a federal agent’s hands away.
One ICE agent was overheard minutes before telling another, “Do you want to arrest the comptroller?” The City reported.
The episode involving Lander — just a week before the June 24 primary — echoed Bill de Blasio’s 2013 arrest at a protest over a hospital closure.
At the time, de Blasio polled at a distant third in that year’s mayoral race — similar to Lander’s current position — but he eventually gained ground and ended up winning.
The anti-ICE protest arrest also recalled Newark Mayor Ras Baraka being cuffed in May as he demonstrated against an immigration detention facility in his city. Baraka ended up placing second in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s governor.
Lander’s attention-grabbing moment in the courthouse 12th-floor hall quickly prompted an outcry from his fellow Democrats in the mayoral race, even among his bitter enemy Cuomo, who called it “the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump’s ICE out of control.”
Notably silent on Lander’s run-in with the feds, was his political nemesis in City Hall, though Adams’ spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said hours after the arrest that: “Today should not be about Brad Lander.”
“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,” Mamelak said in a statement.
Hochul, who had been in the city for a press conference of her own, blasted Lander’s arrest as “bulls–t” before she showed up to escort him out of the federal building.
Following his release, Lander drew attention to ICE’s arrests amid President Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
“We are normalizing family separation,” he told the crowd. “We are normalizing due process rights violations, we are normalizing the destruction of constitutional democracy.”
Lander said while he may be fine, “Eduardo” is not.
“Eduardo is in ICE detention and he’s not gonna sleep in his bed tonight,” he said. “As far as I know, he has no lawyer. He has been stripped of his due process rights.”
Lander had been at the federal court to observe immigration proceedings after Trump’s recent call for ICE to target New York City and other Democrat-led cities.
Opponents of Trump’s hardline crackdown in the Big Apple have decried ICE agents detaining immigrants for potential deportation after they show up for routine court hearings.
His wife, Meg Barnette, told reporters after Lander’s detention that he linked arms with an immigrant who had his asylum case dismissed – a step that could lead to deportation even if there’s an appeal.
The immigrant was quickly swarmed by ICE agents as Lander tried to escort him from the courtroom, a campaign spokesperson said.
Sources said Lander and others would lock arms with immigrants who were likely to face ICE detention in an effort to walk them to an elevator, and freedom beyond.
Lander had locked arms with two or three immigrants before the kerfuffle, and had let go when ICE moved in to make an arrest, sources said.
But during the final escort, Lander would not release his arms to let the feds take custody and had pushed their hands away, sources said.
The accusation that Lander assaulted a fed — besides being arguably unclear, at best, in video — drew skepticism from another source.
“I’m not sure he’s capable of assaulting a damp napkin,” the source quipped.
Lander called the DHS statement alleging assault “preposterous” in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Tuesday night.
“DHS put that preposterous statement out that everyone could see is not what was happening on the video, but they didn’t tell me any of that,” Lander said.
“They did take me to a detention room and I just sat for three-and-a-half hours in a detention room,” Lander dished, claiming he had not been told by officers why he was being held.
But Lander appears to have gotten acquainted with at least two of the federal officers involved in Tuesday’s drama.
“This was kind of remarkable in itself. The arresting officer is a Pakistani Muslim who lives in Brighton Beach. And the second officer is an Indo-Guyanese immigrant who lives in South Ozone Park in Queens. Both immigrants,” Lander told Hayes.
Lander insisted during the MSNBC interview he had no intention of getting arrested Tuesday and doubled down on his actions to oversee ICE proceedings — promising to return to the federal courthouse in the future.
“I will absolutely go back and I urge other people to do it as well,” Lander said, adding, “I will be back.”
In a statement, prosecutors at the Southern District of New York said that they were still “investigating” the episode — but did not specify what exactly they are still scrutinizing.
They added in the statement that “federal law” prohibits assaulting law enforcement officials, but did not explain why they decided not to charge Lander with a crime.
