June 22, 2025

This week, I sat down with Brad Lander — New York City comptroller and candidate for mayor — for an interview on our YouTube channel. We talked about his recent ICE arrest, why the Trump administration is going after blue cities and what people can do to get involved and fight back.

Marc: Brad Lander, welcome to Defending Democracy.

Brad Lander: Thanks so much for inviting me.

Marc: You are the latest Democratic elected official and candidate for mayor in this instance to be targeted by the Trump administration in an outrageous way. In a way that would have been unthinkable, even two or three years ago. 

Tell us what happened to you on Tuesday. 

Brad Lander: I think it's important to know that this was the third time I had been doing this form of court watching. There's a program called Being a Friend of the Court to go observe immigration hearings with an organization called Immigrant Arc. Since about a month ago, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have changed their tactics and they have been stripping people of their asylum seeker status.

And then there are ICE agents lurking in the elevator lobby in masks without uniforms to grab them up. So Immigrant Arc has asked people to come down and observe and you give people a little “know your rights” information. All these folks have done the right thing. They checked in at the border, and they appeared for their hearing. They don't have any lawyers. And so you give them a little “know your rights” information, observe the hearing and then when they come out if they've been stripped of their rights, just walk alongside them and hopefully you are able to peacefully escort them out of the building. 

I’ve been able to do that about five times with different families but then on Tuesday I was accompanying a man named Edgardo when they descended on us, as you can see in that video, grab and arrest and detain both him and me. I asked to see their warrant and everyone saw what played out in the elevator lobby.

Marc: It's an absolute outrage. It is absolutely outrageous what they did. You were doing the right thing. Not for publicity, not for attention, but because it was the right thing to do. Watching the video and hearing that this was the third time you had been there and you've done this for five or more individuals, it reminded me of the image of Andy Kim, the now-senator from New Jersey, but then House member who was caught on camera cleaning up after Jan. 6, trying to pick up trash in the Capitol, and it kind of spoke to who he was. 

I think in many respects, the same thing is here. This sort of speaks to who you are, that you were doing this, and then this all gets captured. The most absurd thing is that they say that you were somehow assaulting or otherwise threatening these masked ICE officials. But yet, you see the video. That's ridiculous.

Brad Lander: Yeah, well this goes to what they're doing here. They want to be able to use aggressive and violent tactics on the one hand with me, a 55-year-old, white male elected official with a U.S. passport, and with all these folks who are undocumented and vulnerable, to signal to everyone: we are going to run a rough shot over your rights, whoever you are. And then they want to be able to lie about it. 

And yes, putting out that statement obviously it is preposterous to say I assaulted anyone when you can see on video, they have their hands on me and I do not lay a hand on them. But I really think that's part of these authoritarian tactics is they'll grab whoever they want. Pam Bondi says they're looking to “liberate their Democratic cities from their duly elected officials” and then just lie about it. And I just think that's part of what their tactics are here to try to erode the rule of law.

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