City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was released from detention after being arrested at immigration court in Lower Manhattan Tuesday. 

At a press conference after his release, Gov. Kathy Hochul said the charges against the comptroller were dropped.

“To my knowledge, there are no charges. Charges have been dropped. He walks out of there a free man," she said.

“We are a far better country than what we’re experiencing," Hochul continued. "This is New York, the land of immigrants. We’re proud of them.”

“I’m grateful to hear that the charges are not being brought. But if they are, I got a lawyer, I don't have to worry about my due process rights," Lander said at the press conference.

Video captured by NY1 shows officers detaining Lander at 26 Federal Plaza.

Lander was trying to escort someone out of the courthouse when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him, his campaign spokesperson, Dora Pekec, said in a statement. 

ICE officers have been detaining people inside federal courthouses across the country in recent weeks, taking them into custody after their immigration cases are dismissed.

"I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant," Lander can be heard saying as officers surround him and another man. "Where is the warrant?"

"You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens," he adds.

Lander said he was separated from a man named Edgardo, who, according to Lander, is currently in ICE detention with no lawyer and stripped of his due process rights “by a government and a judge that owe him a credible fear hearing before they deport him and yet have decided to instead strip folks like Edgardo.”

“I will be fine, but Edgardo is not going be fine, and the rule of law is not fine and our constitutional democracy is not fine," Lander added.

Lander said this wa his third week going to immigration court to escort families out. He said before Tuesday, he had walked out four families, who were afraid of being detained by ICE, out of the courthouse.

In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.”

“Our heroic ICE law enforcement officers face a 413% increase in assaults against them — it is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment,” McLaughlin said. “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.” 

Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, who was inside the courthouse with him when he was arrested, gave a brief statement to the media after the incident.

“My husband is a candidate for mayor, is an elected citywide official, is a U.S. citizen, has a U.S. passport, and I know in all likelihood he’s going to be OK,” she said. “And all of the other folks in that building are risking having their families torn apart with inadequate explanation, and it’s an abomination, and it is not what we stand for in this country.”

Prior to his arrest, Lander spoke with NY1 about an immigrant he said he had seen get detained by ICE and taken into an elevator at the courthouse.

“What due process is supposed to be is, he has his asylum case, it is presented, it’s considered. All of that is stripped from him when they dismiss the case. What they’re doing is essentially nullifying those papers, nullifying that asylum. That’s the case they were dismissing,” Lander said. “So rather than prove it, rather than give him a chance to prove credible fear, or for them to prove he doesn’t have it, by dismissing the case, they remove any opportunity for due process."

Asked about the incident at an unrelated news conference earlier Tuesday, Hochul condemned Lander's detention. 

“Do you want to know what I really think? It’s bullshit,” she said. “How dare they take an elected official who’s been going down there for weeks to escort people who are afraid to walk into a courthouse in the United States of America, because despite them having legal status and following the rules, and making their appointments, that they don’t know what’s going to happen to them. So Brad Lander has stepped up to be a guiding help for them, and this is what happens to him?"

Lander’s fellow Democratic mayoral candidates were also quick to speak out against his arrest.

"Just looking over the tape, I mean, it is very clear that all that the comptroller was doing was exercising his constitutional right to accompany somebody in a proceeding," former City Comptroller Scott Stringer said in an interview with NY1 outside 26 Federal Plaza. "He was there with his wife, and you take the city comptroller, push him up against the wall, handcuff him and think that's OK? That's not right."

Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani spoke to reporters outside the courthouse as well.

"In this exact moment, New Yorkers and Americans are looking to leaders to meet this moment, to showcase the courage that is necessary, the stark contrast from the collaboration and the cowardice we have seen, and what Brad did was engage in that very moment of courage," Mamdani said. "He showed us what leadership can look like, and for that, he was arrested." 

In a social media post, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo decried the arrest as “the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump’s ICE out of control,” adding that “one can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE.”

“Fear of separation, fear of being taken from their schools, fear of being detained without just cause. This is not who we are. This must stop, and it must stop now,” he wrote.

Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called for Lander’s release, with Ramos writing on X that ICE "has no right to detain a U.S. citizen for demanding a judicial warrant.”

“Comptroller Lander should be released and ICE should stop undermining public safety in our city by targeting New Yorkers going about their lives. Masked agents terrorizing our communities and families makes our city less safe,” Adams said in her own post. “Unlawfully arresting witnesses and public officials is an intimidation tactic. We will always be a city of immigrants that stands up for what's right.”

Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, meanwhile, wrote that the “Trump Administration is dangerously escalating their attacks against asylum seekers and the people who are standing up for them."

“We cannot let these disturbing actions stand,” Myrie added. “I applaud Brad for standing up for what’s right."

In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams' press secretary said Tuesday "should not be about Brad Lander."

"It’s about making sure all New Yorkers — regardless of their documentation status — feel safe enough to use public resources, like dialing 911, sending their kids to school, going to the hospital, or attending court appearances, and do not instead hide in the shadows," the spokesperson said.