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Dear John,
Last month, I was arrested at immigration court [[link removed]] by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Normally this wouldn’t be something to shine a light on, but if I’m being honest, it’s one of my proudest moments as an elected official.
I felt more useful in that courthouse than I had at any point since Donald Trump was inaugurated to a second term.
I was released from custody after a few hours. Unfortunately, there are scores of other people being arrested by ICE who are not being released. In many cases we don’t even know where they’re taken. And what’s scarier is that the Trump administration is now cancelling the status of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding people in order to fuel its mass deportation agenda.
ICE agents are now detaining individuals whose immigration cases remain pending.
That means a judge has given them time to find a lawyer and a future court date to present their asylum claims. Despite this, ICE agents, without knowing the outcomes of the cases, station themselves outside courtrooms and arrest those individuals—a violation of their constitutional right to due process and international right to seek asylum. Their presence in this country legal, they’ve followed all the rules, and still Trump’s masked agents are disappearing them.
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Donald Trump is turning our courthouses into abduction traps.
This week—alongside Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and faith leaders—I made my sixth trip to witness immigration hearings, and after seeing more New Yorkers cruelly and unjustly arrested by federal agents and held in deplorable conditions [[link removed]] , I can say with certainty: each time it gets worse.
We witnessed a young family—father, mother, and daughter—enter the courthouse and all receive a hearing. Yet for some reason, the father, and only the father, was detained, and as a result, the family was separated.
There is no legal reason for any of them to be detained, and certainly, no reason to separate a father from his wife and daughter.
Donald Trump says he's going after the “worst of the worst,” but the individuals I'm meeting every week are just regular people who have fled extreme persecution and extraordinary circumstances to pursue the American dream.
This week I met Yasir, a young Zaghawa man from Sudan, whose family was murdered by the RSF and who was kidnapped at 19 before miraculously escaping and making his way to New York. I accompanied Yasir to his ICE check-in because we were terrified he might be deported back to Sudan, which would mean certain death. Fortunately, thanks to his legal team at The Door, [[link removed]] he was able to do what far too many others are not: walk safely out of the building and return home.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and a young man from Sudan in immigration court [[link removed]]
After six visits, it has become clear: cruelty is not a bug, it is intentional. Despite doing everything right and receiving immigration hearings, I have repeatedly witnessed masked federal agents, many of them not wearing uniforms or badges, abducting people who are here legally without explanation or reason. Even the Department of Homeland Security is referring to them as “Secret Police." [[link removed]]
This is an emergency for our democracy.
That’s why I was proud to stand with Assemblymember Tony Simone and other elected officials to introduce the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics (MELT) Act in response to the dangerous tactics being used by ICE. Modeled after California SB 627, the MELT Act will ensure greater transparency and accountability in law enforcement by prohibiting officers and agents at all levels from covering their faces while carrying out operations in New York.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander speaks in support of the MELT Act [[link removed]]
Let me be very clear, masked men arresting citizens and disappearing our neighbors and fellow New Yorkers is anti-American.
That’s why I will continue to show up and fight for the best traditions of this country and the best traditions of New York City. The greatest immigrant city in the world that has always exclaimed: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free!”
Fighting for our independence from tyrant wannabe kings is why we just celebrated the Fourth of July.
When we fight for this democracy and for these families and call out injustice, we are acting in the most patriotic American traditions there are.
Brad
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Office of the New York City Comptroller
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Office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander
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New York, NY 10007
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