During an interview with “Democracy Now!” on Wednesday, New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander (D) stated that he has been escorting people who lost their immigration status from the courthouse out the building where ICE agents are waiting to apprehend them, but he’s not sure if ICE agents needed the judicial warrant he demanded they show.
Lander said, “I’ve been going down to immigration court now for the last three weeks, since Department of Homeland Security made this change and started basically stripping people of their status. It’s called dismissing their cases, which sounds good, except, as soon as it happens, you’re subject to expedited removal. … People don’t understand what’s happening. The person before Edgardo is a person named Zed, who speaks Yoruba, but the only translator they had for him was in French. And the judge asked, do you understand what’s happening? And, of course, he said no. So, your case is dismissed. You’re stripped of status. You walk out of the courtroom. You walk down the hallway. And then those masked ICE agents are waiting in the elevator lobby to grab you. And so, what I had done with five families previously — or individuals, is just meet them, either in the courtroom or just outside it, and just try to escort them down the hallway, into the elevator, and out of the building. And five times previously, including once yesterday, my wife and I were able to do that. And this family that was worried they were going to get deported, they only have one more week, but at least they have a chance to come back to court and present their case. But then, in this case, as I was asking to see the judicial warrant, they just grabbed him up.”
Later, co-host Juan González asked, “I wanted to ask you, you kept saying to the ICE agents, where’s your judicial warrant? However, ICE is claiming that this was a public space and they didn’t need a judicial warrant. What’s your understanding?”
Lander responded, “I’ll leave this for the lawyers. I am not an immigration lawyer. What people have been instructed to ask is, I need to see a judicial warrant. And we’re trying to get good information to these families. What New York City should be doing is connecting people to lawyers and attorneys.”
Lander added that “asking for a judicial warrant is a good idea for people to do.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
