Federal court building flashpoint in NYC Democratic primary

A court tied to deportations now fuels a New York House primary

A federal immigration court in Lower Manhattan has become a flashpoint as migrants leave hearings and federal agents carry out arrests in the building’s hallways, sometimes in chaotic and violent scenes, according to an Associated Press report. The same address—26 Federal Plaza—has also taken on a new political role during the Democratic primary for a House seat.

For U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman and former city Comptroller Brad Lander, the court and the detention conditions tied to it have turned into central campaign material. Both candidates are running in a district that is considered so safely Democratic that the June primary is widely viewed as the deciding election.

Goldman’s campaign emphasizes a legal and oversight approach. The congressman, a former prosecutor and the lead counsel for President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, has pursued access and engagement with the immigration system through litigation and oversight visits. He sued the administration to open immigration detention centers to members of Congress, according to the AP report, and he has conducted oversight visits tied to immigration enforcement in the building.

Goldman also converted his office across the street from 26 Federal Plaza into what he called a triage center connecting immigrants with advocacy groups and legal services. His campaign said the effort helped more than 30 people get released from federal custody. After a recent visit, Goldman credited the oversight work with improving conditions at a holding facility inside the federal building, the report said. He told AP outside 26 Federal Plaza: “What you see from our multipronged approach is the way that I push back, which is not performative, but it is substantive.”

Lander’s campaign presents a different style of involvement. The AP report described him as a progressive city government stalwart running with the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and as a candidate who has acted as protester and court observer. Lander has watched hearings and tried to accompany immigrants out of the building past masked federal agents, framing his actions as a kind of in-person witness.

The report said Lander’s efforts led to two arrests. His first arrest happened last year when he linked arms with a person authorities were attempting to detain in the hallway outside the court. At the time, he was running for mayor, and the arrest gave his campaign momentum when Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo were seen as the front-runners, AP reported.

After losing the mayoral primary, Lander was arrested again during a large protest at the building, and the report said he was hit with a misdemeanor obstruction charge. Rather than accepting a dismissal deal that would have made the case go away within six months, Lander opted for a trial, which he said would extract information about the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts at the building during a tense period that preceded Goldman’s oversight visits.

Goldman dismissed Lander’s approach as performative. “I don’t understand why someone would reject a dismissal of a case so that he can have a public trial, ostensibly to ask for information that I could provide him whenever he wanted because I have the answers from doing my oversight,” Goldman said to AP outside 26 Federal Plaza.

Lander’s campaign continued to spotlight the court in the days leading up to the primary. This week, he returned to 26 Federal Plaza to sit in on hearings, the report said, but his team got word that federal agents were lingering outside an immigration hearing at a different federal courtroom across the street. Lander raced there and found masked agents milling in the waiting room, then returned to a hearing in a back row to take notes.

“The challenge is trying to figure out who they’re going to arrest,” Lander said after popping out of the hearing, AP reported. After a while, the agents walked away from the hearing room, down a hallway and exited the floor, and it was not clear to the reporter why they left. Lander later returned across the street and filmed a campaign video in front of 26 Federal Plaza.

After the agents departed, Lander said he and his opponent may have different styles. “Maybe we have different styles,” he said, according to AP. When asked about Goldman’s approach, Lander characterized it as different from his own: “I would characterize his oversight function as strongly worded letters,” he said. “And my oversight function is: Show up with hundreds of your neighbors and bear witness and accompany people and demand access and stay until they give it to you or they arrest you.”