Former Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander on the launch of his congressional marketing campaign on Dec. 10
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Former Metropolis Comptroller and present congressional candidate Brad Lander oversaw a serious growth of New York Metropolis public pension fund investments in Palantir Applied sciences, a knowledge analytics agency whose software program has lengthy been utilized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to determine and deport undocumented immigrants.
Throughout Lander’s tenure as town’s chief monetary officer, town’s 5 public pension funds considerably elevated their publicity to Palantir, in keeping with an New York News evaluate of pension fund disclosures. Between 2022 and 2024, the funds greater than tripled the worth of their Palantir holdings, rising from roughly $17.6 million to about $56.6 million.
The rise comes as Lander — a vocal critic of ICE who has protested immigration enforcement at Federal Plaza and has been arrested a number of instances whereas observing immigration court docket proceedings — challenges U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman within the Democratic major for New York’s tenth Congressional District, which covers components of decrease Manhattan and northern Brooklyn.
The biggest progress occurred inside the Academics’ Retirement System (TRS), which offers pensions for public faculty educators. As of June 2024, TRS’s Palantir holdings throughout its Certified Pension Plan (QPP) and Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) accounts totaled roughly $10.9 million. By June 2025, these mixed holdings had surged to roughly $60.8 million — exceeding the full worth of Palantir investments held throughout all 5 metropolis pension funds only one yr earlier.
Brad Lander is grappled by ICE brokers inside 26 Federal Plaza, June 17, 2025.Photograph by Dean Moses
In response, Lander’s marketing campaign emphasised the authorized constraints governing pension fund investments and drew a distinction between his function as comptroller and his political positions.
“Brad has been a tireless fighter against ICE,” mentioned Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Lander’s marketing campaign. “He has been at Federal Plaza every week, personally overseeing immigration proceedings and working to prevent the kidnapping of our neighbors. While Brad’s fiduciary duty as comptroller and the limitations of the five pension funds’ investment policies prevented him from using the pension fund and our teachers’ retirement system as a political tool, in Congress, he will work aggressively to stop Palantir and others from aiding Trump’s inhumane immigration policy.”
Goldman’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to requests for remark by the point of publication.
The pensions and Palantir
As of June 30, 2025, the comptroller, working alongside the pension methods’ trustees, oversaw $294.6 billion in property supporting greater than 750,000 present and retired public servants. The 5 pension funds reported a internet return of 10.3% for the fiscal yr, surpassing their 7% actuarial goal.
Lander served a four-year time period as comptroller starting in January 2022, after spending 12 years on the Metropolis Council. His public opposition to ICE dates again to the primary Trump administration.
As a council member, Lander joined a digital picket line in 2019 backing labor actions urging Amazon to “stop abusing workers and cut ties with ICE.” On the time, Amazon Internet Companies hosted Division of Homeland Safety databases utilized in immigration enforcement and was contemplating increasing its function to incorporate biometric databases containing identifiers comparable to eye shade, tattoos, and different private information.
“I wonder if ICE is using facial-recognition software supplied by Amazon for their surveillance of protests in our city,” Lander wrote on X on March 6, 2019.
Extra lately, through the mayoral race, Lander drew worldwide consideration after he was arrested by ICE brokers exterior an immigration courtroom at 26 Federal Plaza whereas observing proceedings.
Palantir has performed a central function in federal immigration enforcement since 2013. Lander has made opposition to Trump-era immigration insurance policies a central theme of his congressional marketing campaign. In his launch video, he mentioned, “When ICE agents started kidnapping our neighbors, I fought back,” referring to his arrest at Federal Plaza.
Palantir’s function in immigration enforcement has been extensively documented. Inner authorities and firm information obtained and reported by The Guardian present that Palantir’s platforms have been used to combine huge portions of federal and personal information — together with journey information, license scans, and different private info — into instruments that assist ICE brokers monitor people and coordinate enforcement operations.
As comptroller, Lander serves as custodian of town’s 5 pension funds and has repeatedly mentioned funding selections should be guided by fiduciary obligations moderately than political concerns. Whereas the comptroller acts as custodian, funding selections are made in coordination with the pension methods’ boards of trustees and exterior asset managers.
Lander’s tenure additionally noticed pension boards wrestle with different contentious funding selections. Late final yr, he publicly urged trustees to rebid main mandates with asset managers BlackRock and Constancy — not due to returns however for what he described as insufficient decarbonization plans underneath town’s Web Zero coverage. Trustees in the end tabled that call.
