Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Brooklyn/Manhattan) pulled no punches during an emergency press conference Thursday afternoon after witnessing a group of masked, plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detaining immigrants at routine court appearances Thursday morning.
“This is Gestapo-like behavior, where plainclothes officers wearing masks are terrorizing immigrants who are doing the right thing by going to court, following up on their immigration proceedings, and trying to come into this country lawfully,” Goldman said at the conference, comparing the seizures to the behavior of Nazi Germany’s infamous secret police force.
“These are routine appearances, they’re updates, they’re administrative, there is no reason for anyone to have expected anything unusual to happen today, and yet they’re ripped away from their families, from their communities,” the Congress member added.
Goldman made the remarks outside the New York Executive Office for Immigration Review at 290 Broadway in Lower Manhattan when ICE agents disrupted immigration appointments and took at least two individuals into custody, he said at the Thursday conference.
The incident comes amid a string of ICE detentions at New York immigration courts, which have seen masked, plainclothes ICE agents taking individuals attending immigration appointments into custody. On Wednesday, ICE detained several individuals attending immigration appointments, as well as onlookers and a Queens pastor, according to a report from THE CITY, inside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan.
Agents last week arrested an NYC public school student at an immigration hearing, which Mayor Eric Adams has insisted is a federal matter over which the city has no control. The student’s detention has sparked outrage across the city and country over ICE’s tactics.
In February, Goldman helped introduce legislation that would block ICE from entering “sensitive locations” including medical facilities, schools, places of worship, courthouses, and DMV offices.
Who are these masked men?
A number of ICE agents were masked, and Goldman asked two of them Thursday why they had concealed their faces. One of them allegedly told Goldman, “Because it’s cold.”
“I asked him if he would testify to that under oath, and he walked away and wouldn’t respond to me,” Goldman said.
Another agent, Goldman said, “admitted that they’re wearing masks so that they are not caught on video.”
“My question to them is: If what you are doing is legitimate, is lawful, is totally above board, why do you need to cover your face? Law enforcement officers do not cover their face,” Goldman said.
Goldman criticized the Trump administration for what he identified as a double standard applied to masking for the purposes of concealing one’s identity.
“In fact, the Trump administration is cracking down on universities for allowing protesters to wear masks. So apparently it is not okay to wear a mask if you are protesting the government, but it is okay if you are the government to wear masks in order to shield your face from the public,” Goldman said. “This is not America. This is not who we are.”
ICE raids ‘hits especially home’
The Trump administration has delivered demands to several universities, including Columbia and Harvard, over what the federal government has identified as a failure to effectively combat antisemitism on college campuses. Columbia partially ceded to several of Trump’s demands, implementing a partial ban on masks worn for the purpose of concealing identity. The administration is now trying to prohibit Harvard from enrolling international students.
Goldman, who is Jewish, said the incident “hits especially home” for him, as his grandmother escaped antisemitism in Ukraine and came to the United States through Ellis Island.
“I’m also, as a Jew, very familiar with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, and other forms of secret law enforcement in Russia and elsewhere, that used fear and intimidation under the cover of night, under the cover of masks, in order to terrorize people that they did not like,” Goldman said.
While he witnessed two arrests Thursday morning, the Congress member said his staff has been monitoring similar incidents all week and has seen “many more.”
The arrests, Goldman said, will only discourage people from attending their mandatory, routine immigration appointments and “encourage people to avoid the legal system, to avoid following proper procedures.”
“By doing that, you are creating more danger, more public safety issues, because there’s less accountability and there’s less legitimacy to the proceedings,” Goldman said.
Goldman, who sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the Trump administration is misleading the public about the goal of mass deportations.
“Ultimately, what this comes down to is not anything having to do with the border, it is not anything having to do with our immigration system,” Goldman said. “It is simply an effort by the Trump administration to remove as many foreigners as possible from this country so that they can return to the 1950s under this Great Replacement Theory and go back to a world of white supremacism that does not include immigrants trying to come to this country to seek a better life.”
Responding to a question about federal agencies “conspiring” in ICE arrests at courthouses, Goldman said the tactic is “clearly a coordinated effort between the Homeland Security lawyers and ICE.” One of the agents Goldman spoke to Thursday morning, Goldman said, was an FBI agent.
“Apparently, the headquarters of the FBI has directed agents as part of the FBI to join these operations to support ICE officials,” Goldman said. “So when you talk about a coordinated effort, it’s bigger than just the Department of Homeland Security, it’s also the FBI.”
Goldman said he is returning to Washington next week and will “aggressively demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security” about the ICE detention tactic.
“The Trump administration has been entirely nonresponsive to Democrats’ requests, but we’re gonna keep making them, because we represent the American people, and I am certain the American people want answers to those questions,” Goldman said.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that staffers of Rep. Jerry Nadler had been arrested at 26 Federal Plaza. In fact, no Nadler staffers were arrested. amNewYork regrets this error.
