By now, most New Yorkers have seen the video of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander being arrested after interfering with ICE agents and demanding to see a warrant as they tried to arrest a migrant after an immigration hearing at Federal Plaza. Assault charges against Lander were later dropped, but the incident prompted an appearance by Governor Hochul to see if Lander was alright. Critics- or cynics- however, are quick to point out that Lander is trailing Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani in the polls as early voting is underway in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Lander was a City Councilman for twelve years, so Vickie Paladino (R-19TH) and Robert Holden (D- 30th), who are both currently members of the New York City Council, appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to provide their take on the Lander arrest. Each of them, despite being on opposite sides of the aisle, used the same word: stunt.
“Look, the first knee-jerk reaction is that it’s a political stunt,” Paladino told host Larry Mendte, pulling no punches. “But the more serious aspect of this whole thing is that he obstructed ICE, and these people think that they can go ahead and do what they’re doing… you know, he locked arms with this guy, he refused to let ICE make the arrest- who the hell are you, Brad?- and he wanted to see a warrant. Well, ICE is under no obligation to show anybody a warrant, and no warrant is even necessary… to remove someone who is here illegally, none. And if you’re here illegally, you’re subject to removal. It’s as simple as that. It’s an administrative process, not a judicial one.”
An exasperated Holden took the high road with Mendte in describing Lander’s modus operandi: “There are many Democrats like me that support Donald Trump’s deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. There’s many of us. This was, like, grandstanding, and it’s funny- he fools a lot of the media so many times with these antics, but again, he was up there to provoke ICE agents. Of course, he’s got cameras all around him, on purpose- his own, many times- and he’s doing this, and it’s a publicity stunt. That’s all it is.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images