Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said Wednesday that they were denied access to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office inside a New York immigration court building, where New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested the day before.
Goldman and Nadler spoke of their denied oversight visit, for which they gave “advance notice.”
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“Even though we are allowed to show up unannounced by statute, and we must be allowed in, we gave advance notice that we would be coming this morning, and they still denied our access,” Goldman said Wednesday morning after visiting the 26 Federal Plaza building.
“They said this is not a ‘detention facility,’ even though the statute very clearly says that we are allowed into any facility that is being used ‘to detain or otherwise house aliens.'”
The New York congressmen planned to observe immigration court proceedings and inspect holding cells used to detain immigrants on the building’s 10th floor. The two voiced concern about reports of detained immigrants sleeping on benches or the floor at the ICE office.
“The question is: Why can’t we go in? What are they hiding?” Goldman said.
Nadler challenged ICE’s “ridiculous” definition of a “detention center,” which he believes the holding cells on the 10th floor constitute. He also took issue with the masked ICE and FBI agents, who restrained Lander inside the federal court building.
Lander, who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York, was released about four hours after he was detained. He was accused of assaulting an officer, but the charges were subsequently dropped. Lander maintained no wrongdoing.
The mayoral candidate was guiding an immigrant named Edgardo outside of an immigration hearing when the situation escalated. Moments earlier, the immigrant’s case challenging his deportation was denied pending appeal.
Last week, authorities forcibly removed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles after he interrupted the briefing. Padilla wanted to get answers about President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to quell the recent Los Angeles riots.
Like Goldman and Nadler, other Democrats have been denied access to ICE locations. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) said Tuesday that they failed to enter the South Loop ICE facility in Chicago, where they wanted to perform congressional oversight of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
In May, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was also denied entry into an ICE facility in Newark, New Jersey. Her visit escalated when she clashed with officers outside the immigration detention center after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested. McIver faces a three-count indictment for allegedly assaulting officers.
WHO IS BRAD LANDER – THE NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE ARRESTED BY ICE?
“If they’re going to treat Comptroller Lander, if they’re going to treat Senator Padilla, if they’re going to treat Congresswoman McIver the way that these agents have been treating them, as if it’s a police state, out in the open in the public,” Goldman said, “how are they treating immigrants behind closed doors who have to sleep on floors for multiple nights?”
Goldman said he would use his authority on the House Committee on Homeland Security to pressure the Trump administration to authorize an oversight visit at 26 Federal Plaza. Also, Nadler suggested that legal action could be taken to “enforce our right to do these inspections.”