Democrats and Republicans are having very different reactions when it comes to the arrest of a New York City mayoral candidate, with the former calling it out as an injustice and the latter arguing it’s all political theater.
Brad Lander’s arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, which came while he was trying to usher an immigrant out of court, came shortly after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was forcibly removed from a press conference and a number of lawmakers in New Jersey got into a skirmish outside an ICE jail in Newark.
The confrontations with law enforcement have drawn outrage from Democrats, who say it’s a sign of the Trump administration’s authoritarian bent, while Republicans have accused the lawmakers of showmanship.
“Polarization has progressed to the point that it’s almost like Democrats and Republicans see two different realities, and those realities are so different that they are either unwilling or, maybe even more concerning, unable to talk to each other about the current state of affairs because they just see things so different,” said Mark Brewer, a professor of political science at the University of Maine. “And if that’s true, then that’s a real problem.”
The incident surrounding Lander has thrust the issue of the Trump administration’s handling of immigration and Democrats’ response back into the national spotlight, but it’s just the latest in a string of other similar clashes.
The first happened just over a month ago in Newark when Mayor Ras Baraka was detained as he and three New Jersey Democratic lawmakers sought to visit the Delaney Hall detention center. While the lawmakers have the congressional authority to inspect ICE facilities, Baraka doesn’t and complied when told to leave.
But he was handcuffed and charged with a misdemeanor count of trespassing.
Tensions continued to rise after Baraka’s arrest, as a scuffle occurred when the three lawmakers — Reps. LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez — attempted to tour the facility. What exactly occurred isn’t fully clear on the video of the clash that’s been made public, but McIver could be heard telling officers not to touch her or Watson Coleman and seemed to push back against an officer.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the lawmakers of trespassing and engaging in a “political stunt,” but she was skewered by Democrats in a subsequent House Homeland Security Committee hearing, who accused her of ignoring their rights as members of Congress.
Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba later announced she was dropping the charge against Baraka for the sake of “moving forward” but charged McIver with three counts of forcibly impeding and interfering with federal officers.
Democrats defended McIver, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) launching an investigation into the charges against Baraka and McIver in his capacity as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. Meanwhile, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution to expel McIver, arguing it’s about holding members of Congress to the same legal standard as all Americans.
Another tussle took place when Padilla interrupted a press conference that Noem was giving last week to ask about why President Trump deployed the National Guard to address protests in Los Angeles. He identified himself and said he had questions for Noem but was surrounded by officers and was forced outside the room, where he was taken to the ground and handcuffed.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,” he said in remarks on the Senate floor after the incident.
Democrats denounced how law enforcement handled Padilla, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared his support for censuring him, arguing that he shouldn’t have lunged at Noem, as administration officials alleged but Padilla denies.
Members of both parties have been equally quick to respond to Lander’s brief arrest as he sought to guide an immigrant out of court and demanded that ICE agents show him a warrant to arrest them. An agent said they had the warrant in their hand, and Lander asked to see it before agents pushed him against a wall and detained him.
He was released hours later, with officials seemingly not pursuing charges.
Immediately following, the other candidates in the mayoral race, and Democrats more broadly, expressed concern and outrage at what they view as infringements on civil liberties and hits to U.S. democracy.
“It goes at pushing boundaries in terms of the Trump administration showing that they can arrest elected officials at will, including as they’re conducting their oversight responsibilities, and they have impunity,” said Democratic strategist Henry de Koninck.
De Koninck said even though most of the officials detained in the past few weeks aren’t facing charges — only McIver — their detentions could grease the wheels toward making prosecuting political opponents easier, testing the legal system for what the courts will allow.
Republicans have pointed to the spectacles that have come from these incidents and the fundraising opportunities that have followed. Baraka and McIver’s teams sent out fundraising messages mentioning their arrests.
Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman noted Baraka and Lander as both candidates in competitive primaries at the time of their arrests. Baraka was running in the Democratic primary for New Jersey governor, while Lander, the city comptroller, is running for New York City mayor.
“I’m sensing a patten, particularly when it comes to Democratic primaries,” she said. “And it seems this is a playbook for some of our more far-left politicians, particularly when you’re trying to court the far-left base.”
Hoffman pointed to a different concern than what Democrats are up in arms about, how law enforcement officers are treated and viewed. She mentioned Boston Mayor Michelle Wu making a comparison between ICE agents and a neo-Nazi group.
“I think that the overall theme here is the dehumanizing of law enforcement officers,” she said. “It’s leading to very serious assault on ICE officers in L.A. and other places.”
Brewer said the differing interpretations of these incidents are to a certain extent a result of the intense polarization of the current era. He pointed to other times of intense polarization, such as during the 1790s after the country’s founding, and the 1850s in the lead-up to the Civil War.
He said even though the charges haven’t been pursued against most of these lawmakers, these incidents further stoke tensions and make a “correction” to cooling the political environment more difficult.
“Every time something like this happens, it’s more poisoning of the well. Do we reach a point where the well becomes so poisoned that you can’t clean it up or recover from it?” Brewer said. “At the very least, we can say it indicates a further degradation of the civic environment in the United States, and that, in and of itself, is concerning.”