ICE-d out.
Two Democratic politicians seemingly looking to get the Brad Lander experience were barred from visiting immigration court in Manhattan on Tuesday — in a move one critic called an “irrelevant stunt.”
Reps. Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Jerry Nadler (NY-12) tried to make a visit on Wednesday to inspect the federal building after getting reports of immigrants having to stay for days and sleep on benches at 26 Federal Plaza.
“We just went in to conduct our constitutional oversight authority of ICE and ICE detention facilities,” Goldman said a day after Lander was manhandled by ICE agents in a chaotic but highly publicized arrest, then released hours later with no charges.
“We were denied access, even though we are allowed to show up unannounced by statute, and we must be allowed in,” Goldman added. “It is unacceptable that they denied our access.”
He argued the “police state”-like arrest of Lander in the same building raised the question of how ICE treats immigrants being held inside.
“We will not stop until we get to go in and observe what is going on in these detention centers with these non-criminal, non-violent immigrants going through the process the correct way,” he said.
Instead, the pair was met by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Field Director Bill Joyce, who confirmed that immigrants had been forced to sleep on the floor.
The Democratic duo avoided getting cuffed like Lander, a mayoral candidate who tried to escort an immigrant from a court hearing — where ICE agents have been awaiting to detain them for potential deportation, but were panned for the stunt.
“Everyone WOKE up on Brad’s side of the bed after missing his spotlight yesterday,” one quipped about the photo op.
“Before those two, I didn’t realize anyone was able to top Lander’s irrelevant stunt on immigration,” another said.
A spokesperson for ICE did not respond for comment.
A rep for Goldman pushed back at the notion that the lawmakers were looking to capitalize on the media wave from Lander and provided The Post with communications giving ICE advanced notice of the visit.
Lander, who is also vying for mayor, was cuffed and taken into custody by ICE agents on Tuesday when he was observing an immigration court proceeding.
The lefty lawmaker locked arms with an immigrant, who was only identified as Eduardo, and loudly protested the agents for hauling him away after his hearing.
Lander was first charged with assaulting a federal officer and obstruction, but those charges were quashed a few hours later, when he emerged with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul, who was in New York City for a pair of public events, called the arrest “bulls–t.”
The Trump administration has significantly scaled up its deportation efforts as of late, with a top-down mandate for 3,000 arrests a day of illegal migrants.
The directive, though, has rank-and-file rankled, exclusively griping to The Post that they are shifting away from the violent offenders and just rounding up people off the streets.
“All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality,” one ICE insider told The Post.
Additional reporting by Mikella Schuettler
Read the full article here
