A New York City mayoral candidate was arrested and hauled away by ICE agents after chaos erupted in a federal immigration courthouse.
Videos of the incident showed Brad Lander, who is currently the city’s comptroller and is running for mayor as a Democrat, clutching the arm of a migrant man that ICE was attempting to arrest.
“Do you have a judicial warrant?” Lander repeatedly asked the agents, as a crowd of people in the hallway filmed the altercation.
The agents tried to yank the man away from Lander, with one of them telling Lander, “You’re obstructing.”
The tussle lasted about 30 seconds before one of the agents said, “Take him in.” The agents pushed Lander up against a wall, put him in handcuffs, and marched him down the hallway of the Manhattan courthouse.
“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens,” Lander shouted as the agents arrested him. “I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant.”
ICE did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment on Lander’s arrest.
A statement put out by Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, on his X account said, “While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE. This is still developing, and our team is monitoring the situation closely.”
Lander was released several hours after he was arrested. “I’m happy to report I’m just fine. I lost a button,” Lander told a crowd gathered outside the building, adding that he was told there was not a plan to press charges.
Lander emphasized that he intended to keep fighting against President Donald Trump’s deportation effort. “We are not going to allow Donald Trump to wreck the rule of law, to deny people due process, and to turn our country into something that doesn’t meet its obligations under international law,” he said.
Polls show Lander, 55, trailing a distant third in the race for the city’s Democratic nominee for mayor, behind frontrunner former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.
Lander’s campaign website features a vow to “stand up for immigrant neighbors.”
“Brad understands that immigrant New Yorkers are the economic engine of our city and will stand up for our neighbors against authoritarian attacks from the Trump administration,” the site says.
Since his return to office, Trump has sought to deport undocumented immigrants en masse. ICE raids in service of that goal have stoked tensions—including fiery protests in Los Angeles over the last two weeks.
In a situation that paralleled Lander’s, California Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat, was pushed to the floor and cuffed by federal agents after he interrupted a press conference being given by Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem in Los Angeles. He was later released and was not charged with a crime.
Shortly after the incident happened, several New York City Democrats threw support behind Lander and demanded his release.
“ICE just arrested Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller and one of the leading candidates for Mayor, without grounds,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents an NYC district, wrote in a post. “He was conducting routine immigration court work, escorting individuals from hearings. He asked ICE for their warrant—well within his legal rights. This is political intimidation.”
Mamdani, who is Cuomo’s main competitor for mayor and an ally of Lander’s, posted a photo of himself among a group of people gathered at the courthouse where Lander was arrested.
“Outside Federal Plaza to demand the immediate release of @bradlander. Shame on ICE—and our disgraced Mayor for his collaboration and silence,” he wrote, firing a shot at current NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
