Top NYC Democrat Goes Off After Being Released Following ICE Arrest: Not Going to Allow Trump to ‘Wreck the Rule of Law’
New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was defiant in his message to President Donald Trump on Tuesday following his arrest by ICE agents.
Hours earlier, Lander attended immigration court hearings to support the migrants attending their scheduled hearings. The comptroller intended to walk out of court with them to ensure they weren’t detained. He claimed he had done so multiple times in the past without incident.
This time, however, the scene quickly turned chaotic. As Lander locked arms with a man and tried leaving with him, ICE agents surrounded them and separated the two. Moments later, Lander tried to do the same with another man who’d just attended his immigration hearing. This time, agents also placed Lander in handcuffs. He was detained several hours.
Around 3:15 p.m. ET, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul arrived at the facility where Lander was detained. Roughly an hour later, Lander emerged from the building with and was met with cheers.
Speaking to the press shortly after release, Lander said that while he was “fine,” the men ICE separated him from were not.
“So, I will be fine,” Lander said, “but Edgardo is not going to be fine and the rule law is not fine; and our constitutional democracy is not fine. This is the third week in a row that I’ve come down here with Immigrant ARC to accompany families out of this building; and before today, I had walked four families out — all of whom were afraid that they were going to be detained by ICE agents, and yet who were able to walk out of the building — even though they their cases dismissed and are subject to expedited removal — but were nonetheless able to get out of that building and at least get back to their kids, get back to their families, try to figure out what’s next.”
The Department of Homeland Security accused Lander of assaulting an agent, but video footage of the incident clearly showed the comptroller simply held onto the men the agents tried to detain. He maintained at the presser that he just wanted the agents to provide him with a warrant authorizing the arrests.
Lander also confirmed that the charges against him had been dropped.
“We are not going to allow Donald Trump to wreck the rule of law, to deny people due process,” he continued, “and to turn our country into something that doesn’t meet its obligations under international law; and so I just engaged in that tradition of accompaniment, of trying to bear witness, of trying to walk peacefully with someone, of trying to make sure that the rules are followed.”
Watch above via NY1 News
