Update: The Department of Homeland Security has since taken credit for Lander’s arrest, declaring in a post on social media: “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.”
New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested at a federal immigration court in lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning. He had gone down to observe federal proceedings being carried out at 290 Broadway, escorting immigrants out of the building to ensure that they would not be arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is the third time that Lander has participated in this form of advocacy for migrants in the past month, with past visits not resulting in any confrontations with law enforcement.
.@bradlander just arrested at immigration court pic.twitter.com/nDqEK1Lzcw
— Courtney Gross (@courtneycgross) June 17, 2025
Video taken by Spectrum News1’s Courtney Gross shows Lander locking arms with a migrant who has just left a court proceeding to prevent his detention by ICE. The two are forcibly separated, and Lander is pressed against a wall of the federal immigration court hallway as masked officers restrain him. All the while, Lander asks them to produce the warrant for the migrant he was escorting, as well as what authority they were claiming in his own arrest. Gross can be heard asking the unidentified officers about an arrest warrant.
It remains unclear what Lander was arrested for, what law enforcement organization arrested him, or where he has been taken. La Voce inquired with ICE whether Lander was in their custody, and was told that they cannot discuss the situation, and that they do not have the information. The FBI field office, located in the same building at 26 Federal Plaza, told La Voce that they are not involved with Lander’s arrest, and to contact ICE for further information. ICE does not have jurisdiction to arrest US citizens.
According to Spectrum News 1’s Courtney Gross, who was on the scene, Lander and his wife were escorting people out of court to keep them from being arrested by ICE officers as they left the building. The Trump administration, in seeking to deport many millions of undocumented migrants across the country, has taken to asking immigration judges to drop ongoing asylum cases and other immigration proceedings, which grant migrants temporary legal status as the proceedings are ongoing.
The migrants – who are following the legal process set forth by the US government by pleading their case for asylum or other legal status – unexpectedly find their temporary legal status revoked in court when their case is dropped. This renders them in violation and thus targeted by ICE, whose agents have been spotted across the country waiting outside of the courtrooms to apprehend migrants as soon as they step out from the proceeding.
