Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander described the current string of ICE detentions at court docket homes in New York Metropolis as “lawless.”
Photograph by Shea Vance
Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander noticed immigration hearings Thursday morning at 290 Broadway in Decrease Manhattan, then addressed the press afterward, condemning the “lawless” conduct by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers who’ve detained people at their routine hearings.
“The last few weeks have been terrifying for New York City’s immigrant communities, for the city itself, this place that has been the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known with an immigrant tradition going back 400 years, and really for the rule of law itself,” Lander stated on June 5.
Lander, who’s working for mayor, attended hearings Thursday morning as a part of the “Friend of the Court” program—an initiative by immigration coalition Immigrant ARC that designates people who can observe proceedings and help respondents in navigating their immigration processes.
He inspired different New Yorkers to take part in hearings as Buddies of the Court docket in “solidarity” with immigrants present process proceedings.
“I’ve felt more useful for the last hour than I have felt almost any time since Donald Trump was elected,” Lander stated.
ICE making courts ‘lawless locations: Lander
Lander famous the case of Dylan Lopez Contreras, a public faculty pupil from the Bronx, who ICE brokers detained at an immigration listening to final month. The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has described him as an “illegal alien.” On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams stated he disagreed with DHS’ evaluation and the style wherein Contreras was taken.
The detention got here amid a slew of comparable incidents at immigration courthouses throughout the town, wherein teams of people attending routine immigration hearings have been detained by plainclothes, masked ICE officers. US Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Brooklyn/Manhattan) stated final week that he witnessed ICE detentions of immigrants throughout their immigration hearings at 290 Broadway — which he known as “gestapo-like behavior.”
“More recently, we have seen our courts and immigration hearings themselves become essentially lawless places where the due process that everyone is due by international law is being denied them,” Lander stated Thursday.
Some Buddies of the Court docket attending current immigration hearings, together with a pastor from Queens, have been arrested by ICE officers of their capacities as observers.
“When I heard that people who were doing court watching, people who were in this Friend of the Court program, pastors, religious leaders, were themselves arrested, I thought it was important for me to show up myself,” Lander stated.
Lander stated that within the three circumstances he noticed, the choose dismissed the deportation circumstances, making the people topic to expedited removing from america.
One listening to, the comptroller stated, ended with the immigration choose ruling to separate a household’s case into two. Lander stated that although he had anticipated an encounter with ICE, he and the households he escorted out of the constructing have been grateful to keep away from detention.
“All three of these families had filed asylum applications, and what they’re asking for is what they’re due under international law, the chance to present that case, and what the Trump administration is doing is ripping that basic due process right away,” Lander stated. “This is not public safety, this is not rule of law, this is not due process, this is just arbitrary cruelty designed to demonize and strike fear and undermine the rule of law in our country and around the world.”
