- 6/17/2025
On Tuesday, NYC Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander held a press briefing after he was arrested by ICE officers at an immigration courthouse in New York City.
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00:00This is a sorry day for New York and our country.
00:05I was literally walking the streets of Little Haiti to try and
00:11bring some comfort to a community that's under siege with a travel ban and
00:16losing their legal status.
00:18The streets were empty, people are scared.
00:22Businesses are concerned about their future.
00:23And that's when I got word of what had happened to my colleague in
00:29government, our Comptroller, Vlad Lander.
00:35The video is shocking.
00:37I knew I needed to come down here immediately and
00:40check on his whereabouts and do what I could to intervene.
00:45I'll let Brad speak about his experience.
00:49But to my knowledge, the charges, there are no charges.
00:53Charges have been dropped.
00:55He walks out of there a free man, but here is.
00:59Well, while that is a positive outcome in a very high profile case,
01:05we're also concerned about those that are walking out of this courthouse.
01:14Taken away from their families.
01:15They don't have the attention.
01:18They don't have the lawyers.
01:20And that's why the state of New York is providing $50 million to cover legal services for people
01:28who are finding themselves in this situation.
01:30We continue to do what we can to support the communities and the immigration coalitions
01:34and thank them for their work that they're doing at this time.
01:37It's hard to see these people, to know their stories, to hug them, to know they've been separated from loved ones.
01:47I just want to say we're a better country than this.
01:50We're a far better country than what we're experiencing.
01:53This is New York.
01:56This is New York.
01:58A land of immigrants.
02:01We're proud of them.
02:02As I stood in the hallway, upstairs, on the ninth floor, waiting to know the whereabouts of my friend,
02:11almost everyone I spoke to who worked there, in security and otherwise, that came from other countries,
02:18they're immigrants themselves.
02:20Don't forget that.
02:22Don't forget that.
02:23Ladies and gentlemen, I present our Comptroller, Brad Lander.
02:26I want to thank the governor, and I want to thank Immigrant Arc, the organization that I was volunteering with today,
02:35and all the other volunteers that are here.
02:38I'm New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and I'm happy to report I am just fine.
02:44I lost a button.
02:46But, you know, I'm going to sleep in my bed tonight, safe with my family.
02:55I'm grateful to hear that the charges are not being brought, but if they are, I've got a lawyer.
03:01I don't have to worry about my due process rights.
03:04At that elevator, I was separated from someone named Edgardo, who I had just met a couple of minutes earlier.
03:11Edgardo is in ICE detention, and he's not going to sleep in his bed tonight.
03:16So far as I know, he has no lawyer.
03:19He has been stripped of his due process rights by a government and a judge that owe him a credible fear hearing before they deport him,
03:29and yet have decided instead to strip folks like Edgardo and the prior gentleman that I walked out with,
03:37his language is Yoruba, and who only got a translator in French.
03:41And so when the judge said,
03:43do you understand what it means that after I dismiss your case, you'll have no status?
03:49He said, no status, as he recognized what was about to happen.
03:54So I will be fine, but Edgardo is not going to be fine, and the rule of law is not fine, and our constitutional democracy is not fine.
04:07This is the third week in a row that I've come down here with Immigrant Arc
04:17to accompany families out of this building, and before today, I had walked four families out,
04:24all of whom were afraid that they were going to be detained by ICE agents,
04:29and yet who were able to walk out of the building, even though they had had their cases dismissed
04:34and are subject to expedited removal, but were nonetheless able to get out of that building
04:40and at least get back to their kids, get back to their families, try to figure out what's next.
04:45Today, Meg, I really want to say a big thank you to my wife, Meg, who was here with me doing it.
04:52Meg and I were able to walk out, a family of four, beautiful, what, did you get their names?
05:00No, so four, like a mom, a dad, a five-year-old, and a four-year-old, beautiful kids.
05:07Meg's Spanish is a lot better than mine, so she took their names.
05:12They have one week. The judge gave them one week to come back and talk about why they fear
05:17being deported to their country, and so we're certainly going to follow up with them. We got
05:22their number and are going to make sure that at least they get as much help as we can provide,
05:26as New York City, as New York State can provide, to help them avoid being separated or being detained.
05:33But then when we went back upstairs again, we had these next two cases, this Yoruba gentleman,
05:41and then Edgardo, who we just tried to walk out of the building, and I think you saw the video.
05:47All I tried to do was just hold Edgardo's arm and ask the ICE agents, do you have a warrant?
05:54And they would not show me the warrant, and I said I'd let go of his arm as soon as they
06:01showed it to me, and they did not show it to me, and you saw what happened.
06:06I will say they treated me just fine after that, and it is true, Governor, you know, as you just said,
06:13that the two ICE agents who detained me, one is a Pakistani Muslim immigrant who lives in Brighton
06:20Beach, and the other is an Indo-Guyanese gentleman who lives in South Ozone Park. This is what New York
06:30City is. It is the greatest immigrant city that the world has ever known, and we are not going to allow
06:38Donald Trump to wreck the rule of law, to deny people due process, and to turn our country into
06:46something that doesn't meet its obligations under international law. And so I just engaged in that
06:53tradition of accompaniment, of trying to bear witness, of trying to walk peacefully with someone,
06:59of trying to make sure that the rules are followed, and that we would know what their badge numbers were,
07:05and that we would be able to see the judicial warrant before he was detained, because we don't know where
07:11Edgardo is now. No one is able to be in touch with him, and our country is better than that.
07:18Our country is better than that. In the room where I was detained, there are posters on the wall,
07:26you know, like you have in the store where it says, make sure you're being paid $7.25 an hour,
07:31and on the wall of the poster it says in English, are you detained and separated from your children?
07:37And it says in Spanish,
07:44That's what's on the walls of the detention room in this building. We are normalizing family separation,
07:51we are normalizing due process rights violations, we are normalizing the destruction of constitutional
07:58democracy, and we're not going to stand by and let it happen. This city, 8 million New Yorkers,
08:0440% of them, themselves immigrants, themselves foreign born, like those two officers, 50% of New Yorkers
08:14live in mixed status households, including one million children. That is the future of our city
08:22that we are fighting for. And I was proud to be out here with immigrant art. I will keep coming back.
08:29I do want to say, you know, I am grateful to the governor for coming. I'm grateful to all of you for
08:34being here. I believe it is important to show up and bear witness and accompany people and
08:40and to do it in the tradition of nonviolent witness. We are not going to give Donald Trump and his goons
08:50any excuse for ratcheting up conflict or violence. It is possible to show up and protect New Yorkers and
08:59protect people who have the right to seek asylum and insist on due process and do it in the best
09:05traditions of nonviolent witness and show that this city, the greatest immigrant city the world
09:11has ever known, the city with that statue out in the harbor saying, send me your tired, your poor,
09:17your wretched masses yearning to breathe free, that we will do it in a way that honors that statue,
09:24that honors our traditions, that shows what New Yorkers look like. Thank you all very much for being out
09:29here. Everyone, one moment. Okay, I appreciate you all. Everyone, stand back.
09:43Hang on, hang on, you guys. All right, Chloe. Everyone, sit down. If you're going to ask a
09:48question, I need you to sit down. You guys. We are going to take five questions. Wait, I've got a
09:58call on the question, people, and you know I'm a fair person. All right, you see we're navigating
10:03between the office side and the campaign side here. We got all our teams on the ground, so let's
10:08try to do this calmly. I saw Univision in the back. Anyone, are you going to ask a question?
10:13Going once, going twice. He's not paying attention. I will do Henry. All right, thank you. Will you be back
10:18here tomorrow or in future days? I absolutely will be back here. And I would urge others to do it as well.
10:27You know, I think people are looking. I was proud to be out within the No Kings March with, I don't
10:31know, 75,000 people we had out this weekend. And a lot of people asked, what more can we do? And I
10:37think showing up to bear witness and accompany is one important thing that all New Yorkers or many
10:43New Yorkers could do. And I will be doing it again. I didn't have my phone upstairs while I was detained,
10:50so honestly, I have no idea what my schedule is and when. But yes, I guarantee you I will be back here.
10:57Brad, the governor mentioned right at the top that they're not pursuing charges or they dropped the
11:01charges. But what DHS put out was that you put your hands on a federal officer and you were being
11:06charged with obstructing justice. Seriously? So I wonder what your response is to the way DHS
11:13characterized it for four hours before you came out. I mean, so I have not seen, literally, I, you know,
11:18I didn't have my phone and I literally just walked out of the building and I haven't had a chance to
11:23read one thing. I do know that while I was in there, Meg got me a lawyer. And so, you know,
11:29but I mean, I take it seriously. It's like, I know I'm going to have due process. I mean,
11:34I don't know. I trust that, you know, the governor said that they informed her that the charges are
11:38being dropped. I don't know because I haven't, you know, seen or heard any information.
11:41Um, that's exactly what they said. Okay. I'm reading it. I said you assaulted an officer.
11:46I mean, you guys all saw it on video, so you know exactly what happened. And I think probably
11:51on advice of counsel, I will not characterize, uh, the events. Um, uh, but I certainly did not
11:58assault an officer I engaged in, in an, in a anyway. So, um, uh, but I guess I just think here's the
12:04thing. Like I know I will have due process and I will have a good lawyer and my rights will be
12:11protected. Um, but Edgardo has no due process rights and no lawyer, and it's going to sleep
12:18tonight in God knows where in a nice detention facility. And so is the, the name of the guy
12:23beforehand. What was his name do we think? Zed. Um, Zed the same. And you should have seen it. I mean,
12:30Courtney was in the, in the room when they told Zed in French, uh, though his native language is Yoruba,
12:37um, that, you know, the dismissal of his case meant he had no status. And I think he asked back
12:45in French, what do you mean? I have no status. Why? And he's not going to have a lawyer and he's
12:50not going to have due process. And that's why I was here. And you know, uh, I'll certainly defend
12:56myself in court if the, if I, if the DHS pursues charges, but what this is about is making sure that
13:03everybody has an opportunity to have a lawyer, to have their due process.
13:18I thank all of them.
13:19Um, was one of them Andrew Cuomo? Imagine that. Uh, look, I mean,
13:39this is a critical time to have a mayor who will stand up to ICE and stand up to Donald Trump and
13:45insist on due process and the laws of this city. This is a sanctuary city. I was proud to co-sponsor
13:53those laws and I'm going to go, I'm going to show up and defend them. And partly why I'm running for
13:58mayor is that New Yorkers deserve better than a mayor like Eric Adams, who sold New Yorkers out in a deal
14:06for his own pardon with Donald Trump. And New Yorkers deserve better in a mayor than Andrew Cuomo,
14:13who on that debate stage last week, when I asked him, why did you deny those immigrant subway cleaners
14:20who risked their lives during COVID, the prevailing wage and the healthcare they deserved? All he could
14:26think about was, um, Hey, were they, and I couldn't believe he called them illegal. And you could tell in
14:33his head, all he was worried about was, would it reflect badly on him? And what New Yorkers are deciding
14:40right now is, will we have a mayor who stands up for the traditions of this city, who protects
14:47immigrant New Yorkers and who protects all New Yorkers? I am very grateful to the other mayoral
14:53candidates who came out here to call for my release, to stand up for those traditions. And I really hope
15:00New Yorkers will elect one of us.
15:03Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney!
15:07There are a lot of people who are going to say that this was a political stunt. I mean, I can recall back to 2013, when
15:12Miguel de Blasio was arrested outside the convention that helped propel this mayoral campaign. Do you think that this is going to give you some sort of
15:18amusement? What do you think, what do you say to people do you think that this is just some sort of
15:22political stunt?
15:23So first, I'll just say this is the third week in a row I've showed up. And the reason I started coming,
15:29we've got Murad Awadah from New York Immigration Coalition here. I don't know, a few weeks ago,
15:34I saw that as they started stripping people of status, as they started dismissing cases,
15:41religious leaders and observers who were here had been arrested and denied their right simply to sit
15:48and watch. And that was when I said to my team, I think it's important for us to go down there,
15:52and I hope other elected officials will as well. And I reached out to some who are not
15:56candidates for anything to say, I think we ought to show up in court. And I don't know what they'll
16:01have us do. I guess I expected to sit in a courtroom like we did for a minute and just bear witness and
16:07watch. But as soon as I got up in the elevator, a lawyer with immigrant art said, hey, this person
16:13has just been stripped of their status. Could you just try to accompany them downstairs? And that was a
16:1825 year old guy named Camilo, and he had like a two year old named Brian who was scampering around.
16:23And they were both like, I mean, Camilo was shaking. And you know, he got in the elevator with me,
16:28and we went downstairs, and we really expected to have him grabbed like Edgardo was. And when we got
16:34out of the building, I mean, we were both like, shaking, and we got an apple and a yogurt and they
16:39got on the train. And I'll be honest, I felt more useful in those few minutes to doing the job elected
16:46officials should be doing right now than I have at any moment since Donald Trump was elected.
16:51And so I went back upstairs and did it again. And I said to my team, you put me back here every week,
16:57as long as we can do this. And like, that's how I understand what the responsibility of being an
17:02elected official in New York City is. I did not come today expecting to get arrested. I came today
17:08just expecting hoping to do that again. And I really think I failed today because my goal was to get
17:14Edgardo out of the building so he could go back to his family. And that is what I wanted to happen.
17:21Right. Right. Right. You weren't doing this. You weren't doing it.
17:24To be clear, did you touch law enforcement in any way? And if not, why do you think they're making this
17:29accusation? Yeah, I mean, I think on advice of counsel, I'm going to wait and let the case play out.
17:37I mean, you could watch the video, watch the video. I think it's pretty clear.
17:47Some, including DHS, have said that you have sort of tried to orchestrate this for a viral moment.
17:53Obviously, it's coming as you're running for mayor. Do you want to address those criticisms?
17:58My goal was to walk Edgardo out of the building. I can't tell you the bit of like,
18:05we got to walk one family out today. And that's this family of four that's back at home. And
18:10nothing would have made me happier to be able to get in that elevator and let Edgardo go about his
18:16business. That was what I came to do. And it is all I wanted to do.
18:19We were in Newark and he was there. I want to ask you, in that situation,
18:27we saw Bonnie Watson call an 80-year-old member of Congress, a cancer survivor,
18:31where Monica MacGyver and Robert Menendez Jr. all get around Ross Brockley, who was a mayor
18:38sitting in Newark who was pulled off a public street by masked ICE agents. The civil disobedience
18:44they offered was to slow it down. It didn't hurt anyone. Is that part of this issue is the
18:49question of just making inquiry and asking to have law enforcement explain the grounds of what
18:55they're doing? Yes. Yes. I was simply asking for them to show me the judicial warrant by which they
19:01were detaining Edgardo to give me their badge numbers and to guarantee the due process that
19:06all New Yorkers deserve. Thank you all. I appreciate you.