BREAKING: Brad Lander, Jumaane Williams and 12 other NYC elected officials arrested by feds at immigration court sit-in

More than a dozen city and state elected officials who federal agents arrested on Thursday afternoon in and around federal immigration courts in Lower Manhattan.

Photo by Dean Moses

City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were among over a dozen city and state elected officials who federal agents arrested on Thursday afternoon in and around federal immigration courts in Lower Manhattan.

Lander was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents, along with a group of nine other elected officials, after sitting in a hallway with a banner outside the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza lockup, where DHS has been holding undocumented immigrants it has detained. The officials unfurled the banner after demanding access to the holding cells and being forcefully denied entry by DHS agents.

According to Lander’s office, the feds also arrested state Sens. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn) and Jabari Birsport (D-Brooklyn) as well as Assembly Members Marcela Mitaynes (D-Brooklyn), Tony Simone (D-Manhattan), Jessica González-Rojas (D-Queens), Clare Valdez (D-Queens), Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn), Emily Gallagher (D-Brooklyn), and Steven Raga (D-Queens). 

Another group of elected officials — which included Williams — and activists were arrested by NYPD officers outside the facility for attempting to block its driveway. That group included City Council Members Tiffany Caban (D-Queens) and Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn) and Assembly Member Phara Souffant Forrest (D-Brooklyn).

In a statement released by his office, Williams said that he and his colleagues had acted “in a nonviolent civil disobedience to demand oversight of ICE’s inhumane detention practices.”

“Even under this creeping authoritarianism regime, I expect to be released today to go home to my family, but the people we’re fighting for don’t have that privilege, as ICE disappears, and deports them,” Williams said. “Together with the dozens of New Yorkers getting arrested today, I call for all levels of government to do what they can to support our immigrant communities and vulnerable, marginalized populations. That means passing legislation strengthening protections on the state and local level, and rejecting any coordination with or concession to Donald Trump and his paramilitary forces in our city.”

It is the second time Lander has been arrested at immigration court in Federal Plaza; ICE agents roughly accosted him back in June as he sought to inquire about the case of a detained immigrant.

This is a developing story; check with amNY.com later for updates.