By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
At 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, where despair clings to the walls, federal officers placed handcuffs on the very people chosen to protect justice. Comptroller Brad Lander, state senators Julia Salazar, Jabari Brisport, and Gustavo Rivera, along with assembly members Emily Gallagher, Robert Carroll, Marcela Mitaynes, Jessica González-Rojas, Claire Valdez, Tony Simone, and Steven Raga were taken into custody. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and council members Tiffany Cabán and Sandy Nurse were arrested outside the federal building as they stood with protesters against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Their offense was not theft or violence. Their offense was demanding to witness what a federal judge had already condemned as unlawful. Inside the building migrants were forced into cells no larger than a kitchen, as many as ninety people crowded together with no bedding, no soap, no medicine, and no privacy when using the toilet. When federal agents denied entry, the lawmakers sat on the floor. They chanted. They raised a banner that read “New Yorkers against ICE.” The response came in zip ties and duct tape sealing cracks in the door so nothing could be seen. Officials had been warned they could stay in the elevator bay but would be arrested if they refused to move. They refused.
Outside, more than seventy New Yorkers lifted their voices, blocking the garage doors as ICE vans prepared to move detainees. “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” they chanted until police dragged them away. Emily Gallagher spoke plainly about the meaning of the arrests. “The criminalization, demonization, and state-sponsored violence against immigrants in this country has reached a fever pitch under this administration. All of us, and especially elected leaders, must do more to protect New Yorkers, regardless of when they arrived,” she said.
