Courthouse arrests of immigrants continue amid Trump’s pursuit of increased deportations

New York City Comptroller and 2025 mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by ICE agents on June 17 at the city’s main immigration court, while in the process of escorting a migrant who those agents were seeking to arrest. 

As part of an effort to reach sufficient numbers to achieve his mass deportation promise, US President Trump has been utilizing “creative” means to detain migrants – including sending ICE agents to immigration courts to arrest immigrants when they’re leaving their hearings. 

In an interview with Democracy Now! after being released from custody, Lander described the way that these “expedited removals” are taking place at courthouses across the country. With some migrants lacking adequate translation services, many don’t understand what’s happening when a judge strips their immigration status. 

“You’re stripped of status, you walk out of the courtroom, you walk down the hallway, and then those masked ICE agents are waiting in the elevator lobby to grab you,” Lander described.

This is not the first time that Trump’s ICE has moved to arrest elected officials – Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested protesting outside of Delaney Hall, the first immigrant detention center opened under the Trump administration. Some detainees recently escaped from Delaney Hall following an uprising by detainees following days of inadequate food. 

The Trump administration is reportedly frustrated with the slow pace of deportations, which have yet to reach the levels of 44th President Barack Obama, dubbed by immigrant rights advocates as the “Deporter-in-Chief”. Amid the push for more deportations, Trump has instructed ICE to “expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” as outlined in a post on Truth Social. Trump dubbed these cities the “Democrat Power Center,” accusing the Democratic Party of using “Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”

Amid the spontaneous uprisings against ICE raids on workplaces in Los Angeles, Trump called in the National Guard against the wishes of the leadership of the state of California. Trump called on Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi to “liberate” the city of Los Angeles from what he dubbed “the Migrant Invasion.” 

Brad Lander accused the Trump administration of “trying to wreak havoc in cities.” 

“This is part of what authoritarians do,” Lander told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! “Strike fear into immigrant families and communities and try to undermine the rule of law and basic democracy by stoking conflict.”