New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and fellow elected officials who were arrested trying to access the ICE detention inside 26 Federal Plaza in September returned Friday to the facility where they were cuffed.
Standing outside of the immigration court in Lower Manhattan, the city’s fiscal watchdog led the likes of Public Advocate Jumaine Williams, Assembly Member Tony Simone, and more railing against the Feds after the Guardian reported that the FBI spied on a Signal group chat used by court observers to coordinate.
“The FBI has infiltrated a signal chat used by court watchers simply to know what’s on the docket in the cases in this building, to identify where ICE agents are, and while engaging in constitutionally protected non-violent legal activity, the FBI in a throwback to the days of J Edgar Hoover, is infiltrating and surveilling nonviolent, legal, constitutionally protected political activity, and I have to tell you: I am outraged by it,” Lander said. “It’s even more reason to show up back here and say, We’re not going to be intimidated by the FBI.”
The Public Advocate also charged against the revelation that the Feds had spied on the group chat, adding that he believes the government is relying on the fact that most people wouldn’t believe it.
“If we go back in history, whether it’s McCarthyism, whether it’s civil rights, dictating regimes across the world during that time, people said that there was exaggeration about what was going on, that it’s impossible that the FBI and the government were spying,” Williams said. “People were trying to sow distrust. And people would say, if you just kept silent, if you just went along, everything would be okay. But we know each time, that is just not the case. And people were not exaggerating. People were right on point.”
This rebuke came as Lander returned to 26 Federal Plaza days after he announced he would be heading to trial for his Sept. 18 protest. Lander and a slew of other politicians were cuffed when they demanded to be allowed to inspect the conditions in which immigrants are kept. In an attempt to stand in defiance, the same elected officials sat in on court proceedings on Nov. 21.
“Hold onto them tight”
Inside, Masked Federal Agents led by an unmarked ICE supervisor stalked the hallways of the 12th and 14th floors. Clutching onto paperwork with a list of names for potential detainment, she ordered her male subordinates to their positions. She herself waited in the wings of the courtrooms, peering inside and even briefly getting into a verbal dispute with the court clerk.
In one instance, a court observer could be seen guiding a family down the hallway following their legally mandated court hearing under the watchful gaze of the ICE agents.
“Hold onto them tight,” one of the masked man muttered as they passed by.
Despite what the politicians themselves deemed as intimidation tactics, no arrests were made on Friday. This marked the third straight week without an ICE arrest in public view. AmNewYork recently reported that while visible detainments have stalled, ICE arrests on other floors, such as the 5th floor, have actually increased, including that of a mother and her 14-year-old child.
With the fear of the ICE in court and on the streets growing, Assembly member Simone said he has not only received concern calls from his constituents, but also his own mother.
“I have constituents calling me just because of the color of their skin. They’re scared to go to work and simply live in our democracy, and that is wrong,” Simone said. “You’ll be held accountable. So, be careful what you’re doing to American citizens and legal immigrants. And look, I want to say one last thing, my mom should not cry to me at night telling me she is afraid to live in her nation. She is a citizen of this country who immigrated from Peru, who got her citizenship. She should not be fearful for my cousins, who own a small business, simply because this White House, a white supremacist, is going after immigrants.”
