Caribbean immigration advocates and legislators on Tuesday, June 17, expressed outrage over the arrest of New York Metropolis Comptroller and Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers at 26 Federal Plaza in Decrease Manhattan.
Lander, a staunch critic of President Trump’s mass deportation coverage, was arrested whereas attempting to steer an immigrant man previous ICE brokers stationed within the hallway of the courthouse.
“The arrest of the NYC Comptroller is an outrageous abuse of energy and a harmful obstruction of justice,” Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella coverage and advocacy group that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights teams all through New York, instructed Caribbean Life.
“This isn’t simply an assault on one among our metropolis’s elected leaders; that is an assault on all New Yorkers who consider in due course of and the elemental rights of immigrant communities,” he added. “For federal brokers to forcibly arrest and detain an elected official merely escorting an immigrant New Yorker out of courtroom is a deliberate try to intimidate, silence, and criminalize those that search to face up and shield our immigrant neighbors.
“At a time when immigrant New Yorkers are being kidnapped in broad daylight from our communities and our neighborhoods, this type of intimidation solely deepens worry and uncertainty,” Awawdeh continued. “We demand fast solutions and accountability from the federal authorities.
“New York Metropolis will proceed to be a beacon of alternative, hope, and a spot that stands up for immigrant communities,” he mentioned.
Theo Oshiro, government director of Make the Highway Motion, one other immigrant advocacy group, additionally expressed outrage over Lander’s arrest.
“Brad Lander was wrongly arrested by ICE brokers right this moment, all whereas performing inside his proper to ask for a judicial warrant from ICE brokers who’ve been handcuffing and detaining immigrants in our courthouses,” he mentioned.
“This authoritarian tactic by ICE is a transparent instance of how this company has gone rogue beneath this administration,” Oshiro added.
“For the previous months, ICE has blatantly disregarded immigrants’ rights and has carried out unprecedented arrests of US residents—with violence and impunity,” he continued, calling for “an entire cease to ICE’s damaging ways.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul described Lander’s arrest as “a sorry day for New York and our nation.”
She mentioned she was actually strolling the streets of Little Haiti in Brooklyn “to attempt to convey some consolation to a group that’s beneath siege with a journey ban and dropping their authorized standing.
“The streets had been empty, folks had been scared, companies had been involved about their future, and that’s once I bought phrase of what occurred to my colleague in authorities, our comptroller Brad Lander,” she mentioned. “We’re additionally involved about these—which can be strolling out this courthouse, taken away from their households.
“They don’t have the eye, they don’t have the legal professionals, and that’s why the State of New York is offering US$50 million to cowl authorized providers for people who find themselves discovering themselves on this state of affairs,” the governor added. “We proceed to do what we will to assist the communities and the immigration coalitions and thank them for the work they’re doing presently.”
New York Lawyer Common Letitia James mentioned Lander’s arrest was “profoundly unacceptable.”
“Arresting Comptroller Lander for the straightforward act of standing up for immigrants and their civil rights is a stunning abuse of energy,” she mentioned. “Nobody ought to face worry and intimidation in a courthouse, and it is a grotesque escalation of tensions.
“The administration’s rampant focusing on of New Yorkers solely makes our communities much less secure,” James added.
Earlier than his arrest, Lander was heard saying to ICE brokers, in movies taken by reporters on the courthouse: “Do you might have a judicial warrant? Do you might have a judicial warrant? Can I see the judicial warrant? Can I see the warrant? I’ll let go while you present me the judicial warrant. The place is it? The place is the warrant?
“Take a step again. Step again, step again,” Lander added. “You don’t have the authority to arrest US residents. You don’t have the authority to arrest US residents. You don’t have — I’m not obstructing. I’m standing proper right here within the hallway. I requested to see the judicial warrant.”
However Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Safety Division, ICE’s father or mother company, mentioned Lander “was arrested for assaulting legislation enforcement and impeding a federal officer.
“Our heroic ICE legislation enforcement officers face a 413 % enhance in assaults towards them,” she added in an announcement. “It’s fallacious that politicians in search of larger workplace undermine legislation enforcement security to get a viral second.
“Nobody is above the legislation, and for those who lay a hand on a legislation enforcement officer, you’ll face penalties,” McLaughlin continued.
After his launch, a number of hours after ICE detention, Lander dismissed the Trump administration’s claims of a publicity stunt and alleged assault on ICE brokers, asking: “Severely?”
“I didn’t come right this moment anticipating to be arrested,” he added. “However I actually assume I failed right this moment as a result of my objective was actually to get Edgardo out of the constructing.
“Edgardo is in ICE detention, and he isn’t going to sleep in his mattress tonight,” he added, alluding to the immigrant detained by ICE.
In gentle of the escalation of immigration enforcement by the Trump administration and ICE detaining immigrants outdoors of courtrooms, Lander has been demanding that New York Metropolis bolster its immigrant authorized providers and protections.
He mentioned that the Metropolis scaled up a number of of those applications, from ActionNYC to Fast Response Authorized Collaborative, in response to the anti-immigrant insurance policies of the primary Trump administration, however, in subsequent years, Lander mentioned the Eric Adams administration in New York Metropolis “reduce or restructured these sources.”
The Comptroller’s report recommends growing the Metropolis’s annual funding in immigration authorized providers by $170 million, bringing the full to $230 million per 12 months, up from about $60 million per 12 months. That is along with suggestions designed to raised shield immigrant New Yorkers.
“Regardless of New York being a welcoming harbor for generations of immigrants, President Donald Trump and ICE at the moment are abducting immigrants as their instances are dismissed in courtroom, leaving many New York immigrants frozen in worry,” mentioned Lander in an earlier assertion.
“Throughout Trump’s first time period, our Metropolis protested at airports and over bridges, filed injunctions towards government orders, and stood up pro-bono authorized providers — and this time, New York Metropolis might be higher and safer by defending our immigrant neighbors, mates, and household,” he added.
“Fairly than shutting the door on new New Yorkers because the Adams administration has executed, we will retain New York’s immigrant custom and put money into the way forward for our metropolis,” Lander continued.
Since day one of many new Trump administration, he mentioned federal immigration authorities have taken “unprecedented enforcement actions and canceled the lawful standing of a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals throughout the nation, together with tens of hundreds of New Yorkers.”
Lander mentioned these modifications are felt acutely in New York Metropolis, the place almost three million immigrants stay, and half of all residents stay with an immigrant.
“The abrupt terminations of lawful standing leaves hundreds in authorized limbo and with out safety,” the Comptroller mentioned. “Because the federal authorities locations a higher emphasis on enforcement, detention, and deportation, New York urgently wants authorized providers. Entry to illustration in elimination proceedings protects immigrants from undue affect by federal prosecutors and tremendously improves their probabilities of profitable their case.”
