NYC’s Brad Lander says he was “treated better than migrants” because he describes what happened after viral ice arrest

The New York City Comptroller and Mayor candidate Brad Lander, who was arrested last week by masked Isagents, says his arrest was not almost as bad as what immigrants and asylum seekers go through every day.

Lander says he has escorted several people to and from Immigration Court through the non -profit organization Immigrant archWhich started a program called “Friend of the Court,” he says in an exclusive interview with People.

Lander says that every time he has witnessed Isagents arrests a non-citizen, they do not read their Miranda rights, they do not have immediate access to translators and their families do not know where they are taken.

In 2023, an appealed court in the United States decided that the immigration authorities do not have to read Miranda rights to non-citizens when arrested because deportation procedures are through civil and not criminal court, Reutants previously reported.

“It is impossible for them to understand what is happening. In many cases they are not given to present their case to say why they have a credible fear of persecution,” says Lander. “I haven’t seen a single person with a lawyer … they have just disappeared into custody.”

Lander tells his understanding, those arrested by ICE in New York are taken to 26 Federal Plaza in central Manhattan during the first 4-6 days, although there are no beds there.

Members of the congress have been denied access to the building, Lander said. “We have no idea how bad conditions are.”

In a letter Sent to the US Department of Homeland Security and Ice on June 20, several members of Congress expressed concern about being denied access to 26 Federal Plaza.

The Deputy Director of the New York Ice Office, Bill Joyce, took questions from two of the congress members who signed the letter, Jerrold Nadler and Dan Goldman, in the building’s lobby on the living conditions for those who have been arrested, The city reported.

Joyce said people are housed on the 10th floor but because there are no beds they sleep on either the floor or benches. He added that people who remain in 26 Federal Plaza have access to food and bathrooms, but there are no medical services in place, according to the outlet.

None of the ice or DHS could immediately be reached for comments.

Lander says he went to an asylum seeker named Edgardo from the Immigration Court in the video of his arrest by Ice, which went viral. He emphasized that it is people like Edgardo and others whom he escorted, who really get his rights offended.

“I have a lawyer, I will have the right process,” says Lander. “Most of these people have only adequate translation and their trial is removed from them. They are then arrested by people who do not carry uniforms and do not explain why they arrest them or show a drawing option if they have one.”

The controller added that some undocumented persons in the Immigration Court were not literate and had no advocate with them in court, such as a lawyer or translator. Lander says that in cases he witnessed, the person was not sure what happened or what they agreed.

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Lander, who runs the democratic primary primary for mayors on June 24, says that in any case of undocumented people, the judge will say that they have 30 days to appeal their decision – but he says that people rarely try to appeal because they spend all the time imprisoned without access to a lawyer.

Lander says that city leaders should stand up for “all New Yorkers, whether they have been here since birth or breakfast”, and adds “Remember that 40% of New Yorkers are immigrants, 50% live in households with mixed status, including one million children.”