Caribbean immigration advocates and legislators on Tuesday, June 17, expressed outrage over the arrest of New York City Comptroller and Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan.
Lander, a staunch critic of President Trump’s mass deportation policy, was arrested while trying to steer an immigrant man past ICE agents stationed in the hallway of the courthouse.
“The arrest of the NYC Comptroller is an outrageous abuse of power and a dangerous obstruction of justice,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, told Caribbean Life.
“This is not just an attack on one of our city’s elected leaders; this is an attack on all New Yorkers who believe in due process and the fundamental rights of immigrant communities,” he added. “For federal agents to forcibly arrest and detain an elected official simply escorting an immigrant New Yorker out of court is a deliberate attempt to intimidate, silence, and criminalize those who seek to stand up and protect our immigrant neighbors.
“At a time when immigrant New Yorkers are being kidnapped in broad daylight from our communities and our neighborhoods, this kind of intimidation only deepens fear and uncertainty,” Awawdeh continued. “We demand immediate answers and accountability from the federal government.
“New York City will continue to be a beacon of opportunity, hope, and a place that stands up for immigrant communities,” he said.
Theo Oshiro, executive director of Make the Road Action, another immigrant advocacy group, also expressed outrage over Lander’s arrest.
“Brad Lander was wrongly arrested by ICE agents today, all while acting within his right to ask for a judicial warrant from ICE agents who have been handcuffing and detaining immigrants in our courthouses,” he said.
“This authoritarian tactic by ICE is a clear example of how this agency has gone rogue under this administration,” Oshiro added.
“For the past months, ICE has blatantly disregarded immigrants’ rights and has carried out unprecedented arrests of US citizens—with violence and impunity,” he continued, calling for “a complete stop to ICE’s damaging tactics.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul described Lander’s arrest as “a sorry day for New York and our country.”
She said she was literally walking the streets of Little Haiti in Brooklyn “to try and bring some comfort to a community that’s under siege with a travel ban and losing their legal status.
“The streets were empty, people were scared, businesses were concerned about their future, and that’s when I got word of what happened to my colleague in government, our comptroller Brad Lander,” she said. “We’re also concerned about those—that are walking out this courthouse, taken away from their families.
“They don’t have the attention, they don’t have the lawyers, and that’s why the State of New York is providing US$50 million to cover legal services for people who are finding themselves in this situation,” the governor added. “We continue to do what we can to support the communities and the immigration coalitions and thank them for the work they’re doing at this time.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Lander’s arrest was “profoundly unacceptable.”
“Arresting Comptroller Lander for the simple act of standing up for immigrants and their civil rights is a shocking abuse of power,” she said. “No one should face fear and intimidation in a courthouse, and this is a grotesque escalation of tensions.
“The administration’s rampant targeting of New Yorkers only makes our communities less safe,” James added.
Before his arrest, Lander was heard saying to ICE agents, in videos taken by reporters at the courthouse: “Do you have a judicial warrant? Do you have a judicial warrant? Can I see the judicial warrant? Can I see the warrant? I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant. Where is it? Where is the warrant?
“Take a step back. Step back, step back,” Lander added. “You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens. You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens. You don’t have — I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant.”
But Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, ICE’s parent agency, said Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.
“Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers face a 413 % increase in assaults against them,” she added in a statement. “It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment.
“No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences,” McLaughlin continued.
After his release, several hours after ICE detention, Lander dismissed the Trump administration’s claims of a publicity stunt and alleged assault on ICE agents, asking: “Seriously?”
“I did not come today expecting to be arrested,” he added. “But I really think I failed today because my goal was really to get Edgardo out of the building.
“Edgardo is in ICE detention, and he is not going to sleep in his bed tonight,” he added, alluding to the immigrant detained by ICE.
In light of the escalation of immigration enforcement by the Trump administration and ICE detaining immigrants outside of courtrooms, Lander has been demanding that New York City bolster its immigrant legal services and protections.
He said that the City scaled up several of these programs, from ActionNYC to Rapid Response Legal Collaborative, in response to the anti-immigrant policies of the first Trump administration, but, in subsequent years, Lander said the Eric Adams administration in New York City “cut or restructured these resources.”
The Comptroller’s report recommends increasing the City’s annual investment in immigration legal services by $170 million, bringing the total to $230 million per year, up from about $60 million per year. This is in addition to recommendations designed to better protect immigrant New Yorkers.
“Despite New York being a welcoming harbor for generations of immigrants, President Donald Trump and ICE are now abducting immigrants as their cases are dismissed in court, leaving many New York immigrants frozen in fear,” said Lander in an earlier statement.
“During Trump’s first term, our City protested at airports and over bridges, filed injunctions against executive orders, and stood up pro-bono legal services — and this time, New York City can be greater and safer by protecting our immigrant neighbors, friends, and family,” he added.
“Rather than shutting the door on new New Yorkers as the Adams administration has done, we can retain New York’s immigrant tradition and invest in the future of our city,” Lander continued.
Since day one of the new Trump administration, he said federal immigration authorities have taken “unprecedented enforcement actions and canceled the lawful status of hundreds of thousands of people across the country, including tens of thousands of New Yorkers.”
Lander said these changes are felt acutely in New York City, where nearly three million immigrants live, and half of all residents live with an immigrant.
“The abrupt terminations of lawful status leaves thousands in legal limbo and without protection,” the Comptroller said. “As the federal government places a greater emphasis on enforcement, detention, and deportation, New York urgently needs legal services. Access to representation in removal proceedings protects immigrants from undue influence by federal prosecutors and greatly improves their chances of winning their case.”
