New York mayoral candidate arrested and detained by ICE amid Trump's immigration crackdown

17 June 2025, 18:46 | Updated: 18 June 2025, 08:01

The New York City comptroller was arrested by 'masked agents' at an immigration court in Manhattan.

He was placed in handcuffs inside the courthouse on Tuesday.

The city's elected financial watchdog entered the public building to observe immigration hearings as he was accosted by masked Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) officers as well as FBI and Treasury Department agents who had their faces covered.

Mr Lander shouted “show me your warrant, show me your badge" as he was pulled away from the hallway by agents.

In the footage, which has been shared online, the Mayoral candidate can be heard saying: “I will let go if you show me a judicial warrant.

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"I would like to see the warrant, and then I will let go.”

Mr Lander asked the agents repeatedly where he was being taken and under what authority.

ICE officers do not have authority to arrest US citizens.

Mr Lander can be heard saying: “I’m not obstructing, I am standing right here in the hallway,” he said. “You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens asking for a judicial warrant.”

His arrest comes days after federal agents 'roughed up' California Senator Alex Padilla and handcuffed him on the ground as he was asking questions to Homeland Security Kristi Noem during a press conference about protests in California.

Last week, Los Angeles mayor imposed a curfew "to stop the looting" on the fifth day of clashes against immigration raids.

During this time, Karen Bass said the restrictions will be in force in downtown areas of LA from 8pm to 6am local time (4am to 2pm UK time).

Ms Bass confirmed a local emergency had been declared after 23 businesses were looted.

She said "graffiti" is everywhere - with "significant damage" to properties due to the protests.

On Tuesday, 197 arrests were made by police.

Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said the curfew was a "necessary measure to protect lives".

'Fear'

Largely peaceful protests turned violent overnight as people took to the streets to protest the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal migrants across the US.

California is suing the Trump administration over its deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles during immigration raids, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Trump has reportedly deployed 2,000 additional National Guard troops on top of the 2,000 he sent on the weekend - only 300 of whom were deployed in LA, according to Gavin Newsom.

Donald Trump arrived on stage in Fort Bragg and said: "There is no greater fear than the US army".

He told the crowd "anarchy will not stand" in LA, noting that he has deployed thousands of National Guard troops to protect federal law enforcement from the attacks of a "vicious and violent mob".

He said: "What you are witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace, public order and national sovereignty carried out by rioters carrying foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country."

He called the "open border policy" the "dumbest policy yet".

He added that the rioters don't carry the American flag - they only burn it.

"People that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year," he says.

He added: "Under the Trump administration this anarchy will not stand."

Last week, the president claimed LA was under siege and that the city would be "burning" without the National Guard's support.

'Targeted'

It comes as British news photographer Nick Stern was hit by a non-lethal 'hard plastic shell' bullet during protests in LA.

Mr Stern told LBC's Iain Dale he was struck when violence "escalated" after the Sheriff's Department responded to people throwing bottles of water by firing non-lethal volleys of "pepper bullets" and "flash bangs" towards the crowd.

He said this then turned into "rocks being thrown" by crowds, with the Sheriff's Department "firing more projectiles at people".

Mr Stern said he deliberately makes himself obvious in situations like this: "I was down there photographing it with my press ID around my neck and my big camera.

"Unfortunately, I got hit on my leg, which was pretty painful, and [it] left a three-inch projectile embedded in my leg, which I had to have emergency surgery to remove."

When asked by Iain if it was "deliberate", Mr Stern said he "didn't know".

Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi, who was carrying a microphone, was also hit by a non-lethal round shot by a police officer.

"It does make you wonder if they are, in fact, targeting media," Mr Stern told Iain.

Mr Stern described the cause of the protests, explaining that people are angry as "Donald Trump said they were going to deport murders and rapists, but that seems to have turned into people who are legitimately going through the asylum process".

He added that people are being arrested when their application "is going through the stages and they're being arrested as they go to these appointments".

'Inflaming'

When questioned by Iain on who is behind the arrests, Mr Stern said he believes it's Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security.

"They are also being backed up by local law enforcement - although local law enforcement have said they won't get involved in the actual immigration duties, but they are doing crowd control, traffic management and trying to stop any violence breaking out."

It comes as tensions brew between President Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom, the California State Governor.

"The president has deployed the National Guard, which Newsom says is inflaming the situation," said Mr Stern.

Mr Stern told LBC that if there's a protest in the US, the "police want to win".

"They don't want everyone to go home safely without injury and in peace - they want to win.

"That's why the National Guard are out."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles mayor and California governor have blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard.

Governor Gavin Newsom said local law enforcement "didn't need help," but that Trump "sent troops anyway — to manufacture chaos and violence."

"Trump succeeded," he wrote in a Tweet, adding: "Now things are destabilized and we need to send in more law enforcement just to clean up Trump’s mess.

Newsom has since promised "California will be taking him to court" for deploying the troops without consulting him, accusing the US president of being 'reckless' and 'immoral'.

“He’s taken the illegal and unconstitutional act of federalizing the National Guard and he’s putting lives at risk," he told Fox News.

He also called the move "by definition, illegal," because Trump bypassed state governors to deploy the National Guard.

"There was no collaboration, there was no counsel, no consideration of the rules of engagement," he said. "It was a reckless act that has led to conditions that exacerbated and it’s putting people’s lives at risk."

The governor also said Trump is "unhinged right now" and accused him of "flaming the fires."

LA Mayor Karen Bass meanwhile urged protesters not to “engage in violence and chaos”, adding on X: “Don’t give the administration what they want.”

“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration.

“This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”