Top New York official Brad Lander’s arrest is ‘fascism’, says mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani – US politics live | Trump administration
Published: 2025-06-17 18:15:00 | Views: 13
New York City mayor candidate Mamdani says Lander arrest is 'fascism'
Fellow New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has called the arrest of Brad Lander because he asked to see a judicial warrant “fascism” and called for his immediate release.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was just arrested by Trump’s ICE agents because he asked to see a judicial warrant.
This is fascism and all New Yorkers must speak in one voice. Release him now. https://t.co/24rfwmIp5S
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 17, 2025
Key events
A reporter with The Associated Press witnessed New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander’s arrest by Ice agents at a federal building in Manhattan as he was trying to accompany a person out of a courtroom.
The person Lander was walking out of the courtroom was also arrested.
Lander had spent the morning observing immigration court hearings and told an AP reporter that he was there to “accompany” some immigrants out of the building.
A video of the arrest, captured by an AP reporter, shows an agent telling Lander: “You’re obstructing.”
In the moments before Lander was handcuffed, agents could be seen trying to physically separate Lander from the man they had come to detain. Lander briefly struggled to stay close to the detainee before he was pulled away.
“I’m not obstructing, I’m standing right here in the hallway,” Lander said as he was being handcuffed.“You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens asking for a judicial warrant,” Lander said as he was led away down a hallway and into an elevator.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest by Ice and FBI agents outside federal immigration court. Photograph: Olga Fedorova/AP
One of the officers who led Lander away wore a tactical vest labeled “federal agent.” Others were in plainclothes, with surgical masks over their faces.
The episode occurred as federal immigration officials are conducting large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the country.
Emailed inquiries to the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not immediately returned.
Lander is a candidate in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary. Early voting in the contest is underway.
In a statement, Lander’s campaign said: “While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE.”
Democratic representative Greg Casar, of Texas, called Lander’s arrest illegal and “outrageous” and called for his immediate release.
Masked federal agents just illegally arrested New York City’s elected Comptroller. Outrageous.
The Trump Administration went after Brad Lander for asking this simple question: “Do you have a warrant?”
By asking this question, Brad was standing up for the basic rights of all…
In this video posted to X by a NY1 reporter, it is apparent that New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander was cuffed and detained by masked federal agents after asking to see a warrant for someone he was escorting from an immigration hearing.
New York City mayor candidate Mamdani says Lander arrest is 'fascism'
Fellow New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has called the arrest of Brad Lander because he asked to see a judicial warrant “fascism” and called for his immediate release.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was just arrested by Trump’s ICE agents because he asked to see a judicial warrant.
This is fascism and all New Yorkers must speak in one voice. Release him now. https://t.co/24rfwmIp5S
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 17, 2025
Here is a clip showing the arrest posted on Brad Lander’s X account. Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, says that while escorting a defendant out of immigration court Lander was detained by federal agents.
He can be seen asking the masked agents if they have a judicial warrant and can he see it. “You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens,” he says. “I’m not obstructing, I’m standing right here in the hallway. I asked to see the judicial warrant.”
Hi, this is Meg Barnette, Brad's wife.
While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE.
New York City comptroller Brad Lander arrested at immigration court hearing
Jenna Amatulli
New York City’s comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander has been arrested by masked federal agents while visiting an immigration court.
New York City comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest outside federal immigration court on 17 June in New York. Photograph: Olga Fedorova/AP
Lander’s campaign spokesperson confirmed to Fox5NY that Lander was indeed arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) at immigration court.
On Tuesday, Lander appeared at 26 Federal Plaza to observe immigration hearings involving individuals marked for potential deportation.
He was arrested, according to video footage of the incident, as he and his staff walked with an immigrant who was being seized by federal agents. Earlier in the day, the immigrant had their case dismissed pending appeal, per AMNY.
Trump says US won’t kill supreme leader ‘for now’ but demands Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ as 'patience is wearing thin'
Donald Trump has said that the US has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and is aware of the location of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khameini, but “we are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now”.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said on Truth Social. “He is an easy target, but is safe there.” The US president added that his “patience is wearing thin” and called for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” from Iran, repeating his warning that Iran should not shoot missiles at civilians or American soldiers.
He wrote on Truth Social:
We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured “stuff.” Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.
He added:
We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
In a third post, he said:
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!
Elon Musk’s X Corp is suing New York’s attorney general, challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring social media companies to disclose sensitive information about how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation and other content.
The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court said New York’s law compels disclosure of “highly sensitive and controversial speech” that is protected by the first amendment and disfavored by the state.
Trump Mobile pulls coverage map after 'Gulf of Mexico' label sparks chatter online
Just hours into Trump Mobile’s Monday launch touting American-made smartphones, the venture pulled its coverage map after users noticed that the body of water south of Texas was labeled as the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Trump-preferred name, Gulf of America.
The name of the international body of water has been a hot-button issue after Donald Trump signed an executive order early in his second term, renaming it the Gulf of America, a name other countries have rejected.
He has since barred the Associated Press news agency from certain White House events, triggering a lawsuit, as AP continues to use the international name, Gulf of Mexico.
The Trump family licensed its name to the US mobile service, the latest venture aiming to cash in on the president’s political and cultural influence.
A Reuters review of the website’s code shows Trump Mobile appears to have used T-Mobile’s network data for its coverage map. The telecom operator’s coverage map labels the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico.
The map stirred up chatter across social media before being removed, with numerous users posting screenshots of the old map. As of late this morning, a link to Trump Mobile’s coverage map returned an error, saying the page could not be found.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the coverage map being taken down from the website.
How the right spread ‘brutal and cruel’ misinformation after Minnesota lawmaker killings
Rachel Leingang
Tina Smith, a Minnesota senator confronted Mike Lee, a Utah senator, on Monday to tell him directly that his social media posts fueled ongoing misinformation about a shooting that killed her friend.
Lee’s posts, which advanced conspiracies that a Minnesota assassin was a “Marxist” and blamed the state’s governor for Melissa Hortman’s death, were among many threads of false or speculative claims swirling online after the killings.
Smith told Lee his posts were “brutal and cruel,” according to CNN. “He should think about the implications of what he’s saying and doing. It just further fuels this hatred and misinformation,” she said. She wanted him to hear from her directly how painful it was to see his words after the brutality her state endured. Lee didn’t say much, according to Smith, and seemed surprised to be confronted.
Within hours of the shootings, rightwing social media accounts with millions of followers manufactured false conspiracy theories about the suspect and his motives, falsely portraying the man whose friends say he is an evangelical Christian Trump supporter as a radical leftwing assassin and attempting to paint him as a political ally of Tim Walz, the Democratic governor and former vice-presidential candidate.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it is launching a program that aims to accelerate the drug review process, under which its commissioner can issue vouchers to companies to shorten their review time for a drug application to 1-2 months from the typical timeline of about 10-12 months, Reuters reports.
The new Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program convenes experts from the regulator’s offices for a team-based review, instead of using the standard review system, where a drug application is sent to numerous FDA offices, the agency said.
The FDA plans to give a limited number of vouchers to companies aligned with US national priorities in the first year of the program.
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump has abandoned his brief immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) reprieve for farm and hotel workers, ordering the agency’s raids in those sectors to resume after hardliners crushed a pause that lasted just four days.
The whiplash reversal, first reported by the Washington Post, exposes the dysfunction gripping the president’s deportation agenda, where competing advisers battle over policy while Trump lurches between contradictory positions.
“The president has been incredibly clear,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday. “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine Ice’s efforts.”
The flip-flop also follows Trump’s erratic pattern on major policies – from threatening then retreating on mass global tariffs to wavering on federal spending cuts – as different factions fight for his ear.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expects to find an agreement in the tariff dispute with the US before the summer is over, he told broadcaster ARD.
“We are approaching agreement in small steps. I assume that this agreement will be possible before the summer, before the summer break, and that we will then also be able to reach a similar agreement to the one concluded between the United States of America and the United Kingdom,” he said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
Few immigrants taken into Ice custody since October had serious convictions - CNN
Fewer than 10% of immigrants arrested by Ice this fiscal year have serious criminal convictions like rape, murder, assault or robbery CNN reports. Three-quarters had no criminal convictions beyond immigration or traffic offenses.
Per CNN’s story:
As the Trump administration has ramped up raids in Los Angeles and around the country, top officials have highlighted the capture of immigrants convicted of crimes like murder, assault and rape — describing them as “barbaric” criminals who “reigned terror” on American communities.
But internal government documents obtained by CNN show that only a fraction of migrants booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October have been convicted of serious violent or sexual crimes.
Public Ice data released by the administration shows that most immigrants currently in the agency’s custody do not have a prior criminal conviction. But the internal data reviewed by CNN goes deeper, making clear that even among those convicted of crimes, a substantial percentage faced only relatively minor charges.
The internal data covers the more than 185,000 immigrants who have been booked into Ice custody during the last months of the Biden administration and first months of the Trump administration, including those detained by Ice agents and those detained by Customs and Border Protection who were then placed in Ice custody.
The records show a stark contrast with the Trump administration’s public messaging. In the last month, almost all of the detained or deported immigrants named or specifically identified in Ice or DHS press releases were convicted or accused of crimes aside from immigration violations. Nearly two thirds were characterized as convicted or accused of serious crimes.
'His playbook is radical and un-American': NAACP will not invite Trump to convention in historic first
The NAACP said it will not invite Donald Trump to its annual convention next month, the first time the 116-year-old civil rights organization has not asked a sitting US president to attend its convention.
Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, accused the president of working against the group’s mission.
“This has nothing to do with political party,” Johnson said in a statement on Monday. “Our mission is to advance civil rights, and the current president has made clear that his mission is to eliminate civil rights.”
Johnson said Trump has undermined American democracy by trying to consolidate power, has signed unconstitutional executive orders that oppress and undo federal civil rights protections and has turned the US military against communities.
The group, which is nonpartisan, has invited presidents from both the Republican and Democratic parties since Harry Truman in 1946, it said.
“But right now, it’s clear — Donald Trump is attacking our democracy and our civil rights. He believes more in the fascist playbook than in the US Constitution. This playbook is radical and un-American,” Johnson said.
The NAACP said it also will not invite vice-president JD Vance to its national convention 12-16 July in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The civil rights group has filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration over diversity, equity and inclusion programs and voting rights.
