New York congressional candidate found not guilty over ICE facility protest

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(The Washington Post) – Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, was found not guilty of a federal misdemeanor charge tied to a protest he and other local politicians staged in September at an ICE facility.

Lander took the unusual step of requesting a trial over the charge, which came after he and more than a dozen other elected officials attempted to enter a building where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been holding detainees.

He and others in the group were arrested and accused of illegally blocking an elevator bank. But a federal magistrate judge said Wednesday that Lander was not liable over the incident following a one-day bench trial.

Lander, who ran last year for New York mayor, is now waging a heated primary challenge against Rep. Dan Goldman (D) for a deep-blue House district that includes the facility at 26 Federal Plaza.

Goldman turned his district office across the street into a “triage center” to help immigrants who are detained during ICE check-ins or asylum hearings at the immigration court in the same building.

Lander said he requested a trial rather than paying a fine in hopes of accessing additional information on ICE’s activity in New York through discovery.

“All we want at 26 Federal Plaza is for everybody facing removal proceedings by our government to have the same access to the rule of law as I had in this trial,” Lander said in a statement after the ruling. “That’s why I took this case to trial, and that’s why, whatever happens on June 23rd, I will keep showing up to protect our immigrant neighbors and insist that the rule of law apply to everyone.

Lander had also been charged over a separate incident last June at 26 Federal Plaza, where the politician – then a mayoral candidate – was detained by federal agents as he attempted to escort a defendant from an appearance at the immigration court. Prosecutors later dropped those charges.

He was charged after the September protest for “unreasonably obstructing the usual use” of the elevator lobby on the building’s 10th floor.

Much of the bench trial on Wednesday consisted of wonky deliberations over what it meant to “obstruct” that area.

Prosecutors and ICE representatives did not respond to a request for comment.