New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a candidate for mayor, was arrested by federal agents Tuesday as he tried to protect a migrant from arrest by federal agents, refusing to back away and demanding to see a judicial warrant.

Agents warned him he was obstructing them, then handcuffed him and hustled him into an elevator, all while he denounced them for it.

“You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens asking for a judicial warrant,” he said.

He’s the latest prominent Democrat to tussle with Homeland Security in what has become a path to stardom on the left.

Even as news of his arrest broke, Sen. Alex Padilla was on the Senate floor defending his own confrontation with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week over immigration enforcement and deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles.

Mr. Padilla also found himself handcuffed — though he was neither detained nor arrested — after he tried to disrupt Ms. Noem’s press conference by interjecting a question.

The California Democrat choked up as he told colleagues of being ordered to the ground and handcuffed.

“I pray you never have a moment like this,” he said.

He defended his disruption of the press conference, saying he hadn’t planned to ask any questions but felt compelled in the moment after he heard Ms. Noem say the guard soldiers were being used to help “liberate this city” from the “socialist” leadership of the Democratic mayor and governor.

“But before I could even get out my question I was physically and aggressively forced out of the room, even as I repeatedly announced I was a United States senator,” he said.

In yet another ICE confrontation, Rep. LaMonica McIver, New Jersey Democrat, has been charged with assaulting federal officers after authorities say she was caught on video using her forearm to shove ICE agents during a scuffle at a detention facility in New Jersey.

Agents in that incident were attempting to arrest the mayor of Newark, who they thought had wrongly gained entry to the facility.

Jonathan Fahey, a former assistant U.S. attorney who led ICE in the last days of the first Trump administration, said Democrats are now competing to defy ICE.

“It’s such utter nonsense and it’s so clear the Democrats’ strategy now is just full-on obstruct in every respect because they know on the merits of these issues, they lose,” he said.

But liberal activists lay blame at the Trump administration and ICE, with some taking to social media to label them a modern “Gestapo.”

Immigration groups defended Mr. Lander, too, calling the arrest “an outrageous abuse of power.”

“For federal agents to forcibly arrest and detain an elected official simply escorting an immigrant New Yorker out of court is a deliberate attempt to intimidate, silence, and criminalize those who seek to stand up and protect our immigrant neighbors,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, defended Mr. Lander’s behavior as “routine immigration court work, escorting individuals from hearings.”

“He asked ICE for their warrant — well within his legal rights,” she said.

ICE did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Washington Times.

An Associated Press reporter was on hand for the confrontation and reported that Mr. Lander said he was there to “accompany” migrants as they were leaving the immigration court.

As he walked out of a courtroom with one person, agents tried to separate the comptroller from the man, whom AP said was the target of the agents.

Mr. Lander “struggled” to keep close to the detainee before being pulled away, reported AP.

In video of the confrontation he repeatedly demands to see a “judicial warrant.”

Experts said that misunderstood immigration law. Immigration enforcement, particularly in the country’s interior, is usually a civil matter with the punishment being deportation.

ICE deportation officers making those arrests operate under administrative warrants, not judicial warrants, since there is no criminal charge but rather an accusation of illegal presence.

It’s a misunderstanding even held by some in the legal profession.

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was charged with interfering in an ICE arrest after prosecutors say she helped an illegal immigrant escape her courtroom. She had argued with an ICE officer, demanding he produce a judicial warrant for the man’s arrest.

The officer replied that an administrative warrant was valid for making an arrest in a public place.

Mr. Fahey said that regardless of the warrant required, Mr. Lander is not in a position to demand to see it.

“Whatever legal issues are there are between the person getting locked up and the cop,” he said.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.