Hochul on NYC candidate's arrest: 'How dare they'

Source: The Hill

06/17/25 5:15 PM ET


New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) condemned the arrest of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander (D), a candidate for mayor, who was detained Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while guiding a defendant out of immigration court.

“Do you want to know what I really think?” Hochul said to a reporter when asked about Lander’s arrest at a press conference Tuesday. “It’s bull—-,” she continued. “How dare they take an elected official, who’s been going down there for weeks, to escort people who are afraid to walk into a courthouse in the United States of America?”

“Because, despite them having legal status and following the rules and making their appointments, that they don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” she continued, referring to migrants attending their required court appearances but then facing ICE agents waiting to detain them. “So Brad Lander has stepped up, to be a guiding help for them, and this is what happens to him? What the hell is happening to this country?” the governor added.

Lander campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement earlier Tuesday that masked agents took Lander and ICE detained him as Lander was escorting a defendant out of the court.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5355813-hochul-ice-detains-nyc-comptroller/