A candidate for New York mayor, Brad Lander, is being charged with assaulting federal officers following an incident Tuesday at a federal courthouse during which the Democrat interfered in the arrest of an immigrant by federal law enforcement officers. 

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other law enforcement officials arrested Mr. Lander following a scuffle outside a courtroom. Mr. Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, released video of the incident to his X account, saying he was “escorting a defendant out of immigration court” when the immigrant and Mr. Lander were “taken by masked agents and detained by ICE.” Mr. Lander’s campaign released an almost identical statement.

“Mr. Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement. “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”

In a video of the incident, Mr. Lander grips a man who is presumably the immigrant and refuses to let go while agents surround them. “I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant,” Mr. Lander says.

The agents apprehend the immigrant man and then handcuffs Mr. Lander as he yells, “You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens.” Mr. Lander’s wife and a sea of other cameras captured the incident. Mr. Lander is then taken into an elevator with the ICE agents.

Is this a publicity stunt from a campaign in need of a boost? That’s what a political strategist, who works on both sides of the aisle, E. O’Brien Murray, tells The New York Sun. “Tell me that’s not a desperate attempt from a candidate who’s failing,” he says.

“It’s tough enough to break through to voters in New York City elections, but when you have so many to choose from, and you have so much money being spent and so much taxpayer dollars being put in, the voters, at the end of the day, may know a lot about two and three of the candidates,” Mr. Murray says.

A former chief of staff to Mayor Adams, Frank Carone, posted an image to X of Mr. Lander pushing back against the officers in the courthouse with the tagline, “Academy award goes to …”

In most polls, Mr. Lander is in a distant third place behind Governor Cuomo and a Democratic Socialist state assemblyman, Zohran Mamdani. Messrs. Lander and Mamdani cross-endorsed each other on Friday, telling their supporters to rank the other one second in their ranked-choice ballots.

Mr. Mamdani rushed to the scene of Mr. Lander’s arrest Tuesday to speak with reporters. “What we saw this morning was Comptroller Lander asking ICE to follow the law,” he said. He called for Mr. Lander’s “immediate” release and said ICE “only has an interest in terrorizing people.”

Mr. Cuomo was also quick to use the incident to his seeming advantage by attacking Mayor Adams, who may be a large obstacle to a Cuomo victory in the fall if the former governor runs as a Democrat or independent. “Make no mistake: this kind of conduct is the direct result of @ericadamsfornyc handing the keys to our great City over to Donald Trump,” Mr. Cuomo posted to X.  

“This is still developing, and our team is monitoring the situation closely,” a Lander campaign spokesperson said in a statement.