Judge acquits Brad Lander in immigration facility protest case

A Manhattan federal judge cleared Brad Lander of misdemeanor charges tied to his September confrontation at 26 Federal Plaza, closing a case that has become part of New York’s larger fight over immigration enforcement and access for elected officials. The ruling came in a bench trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and gives Lander, a congressional candidate, a legal win as he tries to turn repeated clashes with federal authorities into a political argument.

Lander was arrested on Sept. 18, 2025, after he and other elected officials tried to inspect the 10th-floor rooms used to hold detained immigrants inside the federal building, which houses an ICE office and the FBI’s New York field office. Prosecutors said he blocked an elevator and ignored warnings to move. His defense said Lander and the others were there to inspect detention conditions, not to obstruct law enforcement, and the judge said the government failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The September protest came after a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to improve conditions for immigrants being held in the city. DHS said 71 people were arrested that day, including Lander, two New York state senators and nine state assembly members, underscoring how quickly the protest escalated from an oversight visit into a mass arrest at a site that has become a flash point in Lower Manhattan.

Lander had already been arrested at the same location in June 2025 while escorting a defendant out of immigration court. Charges from that earlier arrest were later dropped. He said after that episode that ICE agents were “abducting our neighbors and trying to hide what is happening from the public,” and he vowed to keep returning to the federal immigration court.

The acquittal lands in the middle of Lander’s campaign to unseat Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District, where the Democratic primary is set for June 23, 2026. Lander responded to the ruling on social media by writing, “In a loss for the fascists, a federal judge ruled that Brad Lander is NOT guilty in the trial resulting from his arrest by ICE last year at 26 Federal Plaza.”

The case also fits into a broader battle over how far elected officials can go in pressing for visibility inside immigration detention spaces. DHS had argued that its officers were facing a 413% increase in assaults, using that claim to portray the protests as a threat to law enforcement. The judge’s ruling gives Lander a powerful counterpoint as he keeps making oversight of immigration detention part of his campaign.