FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: media@vera.org

New York, NY: After the arrest by ICE of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, issued the following statement:

When the federal government arrests a sitting elected official for defending due process and basic fairness, it sends a chilling message that no one is protected by the law. Yesterday, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was detained by federal immigration agents as he was accompanying people appearing for routine immigration proceedings in Lower Manhattan. His offense? Demanding that the agents produce a judicial warrant before making an arrest of someone who was there to attend their immigration court date. For this, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson described him as “assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” While Comptroller Lander was released within hours, increasingly, people cooperating with the legal process by attending their scheduled immigration hearings and check-ins are being targeted like never before for detention and deportation—despite following the legal process to defend their right to stay in the country. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, federal agents have used continuously escalating tactics to reach the president’s mass deportation goals, including, most recently, instituting a 3,000-arrests-a-day quota. This immigration dragnet is an affront to due process that has ensnared thousands of people who are working, supporting their families, and long-time members of their communities. We are alarmed by this escalation and call on New York’s leadership to hold a special session to increase funding for immigrant legal defense, pass New York for All, and enact measures to protect our communities from Trump’s mass deportation agenda.