City Comptroller Brad Lander said on Tuesday that he is forcing the federal government into a criminal trial over his arrest this summer during a sit-in protest at 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE has detained hundreds of law-abiding immigrants.
The city’s fiscal watchdog and immigrant advocate appeared in federal court on Nov. 18 and formally rejected a plea deal for his Sept. 18 arrest. Lander said his main objective is to get some answers from the federal government about what has been happening inside detention areas within Federal Plaza, where he and other lawmakers have been repeatedly denied access.
“Let’s be clear that crime is what ICE is doing in those detention facilities,” Lander said before walking into federal court at 500 Pearl St. on Nov. 18.
The Sept. 18 protest involved Lander and a number of other local elected officials who were arrested after they attempted to inspect ICE detention conditions on the 10th floor of Federal Plaza. Federal agents had placed used opaque tape to seal the doors in order to prevent the elected officials from even poking through the cracks and seeing inside.
Lander, along with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, state Sen. Julia Salazar, Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, and more, were all cuffed when they refused to leave the hallways of the 10th floor.
Appearing in federal court on Tuesday, all of the elected officials arrested in the Sept. 18 protest, except Lander, accepted a plea deal that will result in the charges being dropped as long as they do not enter a federal building for six months.
The comptroller, instead, said he is forcing a courtroom showdown to face those who arrested him in a further attempt to uncover the conditions of the 10th floor.
“I requested a trial. The officers who detained us on that day have to come, and I would like to ask them questions, because those same officers were in the 10th-floor detention facilities. And if they’re going to ask us about what we were doing in the elevator bank, I want to ask them about what they were doing in the detention facilities,” Lander said.
No trial date has been set for Lander yet. The outgoing comptroller is leaving office on Dec. 31, and mulling a possible run for Congress against U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman.
If convicted, he could face a penalty of up to 30 days in jail. Yet the outgoing comptroller said he is willing to take that chance in pursuit of both the truth and protecting immigrant New Yorkers.
“We’re charged with obstructing the elevators and the stairwells. But we were all there for the same reason, which is to demand to see what is happening to our neighbors in the detention facilities at 26 Federal Plaza,” Lander said. “If what I have to risk, you know, would be a class C federal misdemeanor or even a few days, it is worth it to stand up for the values of the city and this country.”
