Local lawmakers push for transparency with ICE after NYC Comptroller Brad Lander's arrest
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Several members of Congress are pushing for better access to ICE facilities and more transparency over the treatment of migrants just a day after Comptroller Brad Lander's arrest.
Lander, who is also a mayoral candidate, was taken into custody by federal agents during an immigration hearing on Tuesday.
Lander said he was trying to ensure the rights of an immigrant were being provided at the time of the arrest. He was released a few hours later and appeared with Gov. Kathy Hochul who said the charges against him had been dropped.
On Wednesday, Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Dan Goldman came down to Federal Plaza with the goal of watching some of the immigration hearings and to see if any of those immigrants were detained by ICE.
If they were, they wanted to see how and where they were being detained.
"We are very concerned about what conditions these immigrants are being held in while this mass deportation scheme is underway," Goldman said.
They said the visit was part of their congressional oversight responsibility and they requested access to visit ICE's removal operation field office, but they were denied access to the holding area.
They were able to observe some of the hearings and said no one was detained while they were there but they are frustrated by what has transpired.
"This is ridiculous, if people are detained there, it's a detention center, and under the statute, we have absolute right under Section 527 to inspect detention centers, a right that was denied to us," Nadler said.
Nadler, the former Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said Americans may have "wait until we get a Democratic majority in 2028" until Democrats can put up a serious challenge to President Trump's immigration crackdown.
"If they refuse our lawful request to exercise our rights as members of Congress here, and if our Republican colleagues in the majority refuse to do anything about it, we will have to wait till we get a Democratic majority in 2028, which I'm confident we will," he said.
When pushed on Nadler's response, Goldman quickly distanced himself - explicitly saying, "I did not say that"- and suggested that Democrats can take intermediate action like suing the Trump administration or seeking consensus with their Republican colleagues.
But Nadler stood by his assessment of the political landscape, telling reporters that there's little Democrats can do without power.
"We do not have a majority in either house. That limits what we can do. We are doing everything possible and of course, people are very frustrated because they don't see results. But results are very difficult ... when you have a terrible administration and a terrible Congress that acts as an agent of the administration," he said.
Around the country, federal immigration officials are arresting immigrants outside courtrooms. The Department of Homeland Security has been exerting its force, even when it comes to public officials.
"Since when did we accept a scenario when people are showing up to court and are suddenly tricked, quickly arrested, detained and rendered disconnected from the world that they knew without any semblance of due process," said attorney Harold Solis with Make the Road.
One month ago, the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka was arrested on trespassing charges at a federal immigration detention center in Newark. That charge was later dropped.
And just last week, a senator from California, Alex Padilla, was removed from a DHS news conference.
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