New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released hours after his arrest at an immigration court
The incident is the latest in a series of dramatic confrontations between immigration officials and Democrats opposing President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
Last week, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was then a candidate for governor of New Jersey, was also arrested on trespassing charges last month at an ICE detention facility in the state. The charges were dropped, but Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was subsequently charged with assaulting law enforcement during the incident. Trump and his "border czar," Tom Homan, also suggested that California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could be arrested, too.
The Democratic officials and their allies have argued that the incidents were politically motivated and have criticized the administration's conduct, while the Trump administration has fiercely defended immigration agents and accused Democrats of staging political stunts.
Lander can be seen in a video on his personal X account being surrounded by people, including masked officers in vests labeled with the word "police." At one point, someone says, "Put him in custody," and the men holding him scuffle with him before they pin him to a wall and handcuff him.
“I’m not obstructing. I’m standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant,” Lander says in the video.
“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens asking for a judicial warrant,” he adds.
Lander is then led into an elevator with his hands behind his back as an aide asks, “Where are you taking the comptroller of the city of New York?”
Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, criticized the Trump administration’s handling of cases involving immigrants at a news conference shortly after her husband’s arrest.
She also echoed Democratic criticisms of the administration’s immigration policies, arguing that judges were dismissing charges against defendants before the defendants were turned over to federal agents to begin the deportation process.
“This is not the way we deal with rule of law; this is not the way people are treated in the United States,” said Barnette, a former attorney.
“I feel really rattled and scared, and my husband is a candidate for mayor, is an elected citywide official, is a U.S. citizen,” she said. "And all of the other folks in that building are risking having their families torn apart with inadequate explanation. And it’s an abomination.”
She added that a member of Lander's New York police security detail accompanied him with the law enforcement officers who detained him.
Prominent city officials and politicians joined Barnette at the news conference outside the courthouse, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council member Tiffany Cabán and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a fellow candidate for mayor.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, another Democrat seeking the nomination for mayor, called the episode "the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump's ICE" on X.
In a statement, state Attorney General Letitia James criticized "the administration's rampant targeting of New Yorkers" and called the episode "a grotesque escalation of tensions."
Dylan Ebs, Jonathan Dienst, Kyle Stewart and Jesse Rodriguez contributed.