MANHATTAN (CN) - New York City Comptroller and recent Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday afternoon to a federal misdemeanor arising from a civil disobedience in September protesting the Trump administration's arrest tactics at a controversial immigration holding facility in Manhattan.

Joined by more than a dozen city and state officials, Lander was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents at 26 Federal Plaza in September during a demonstration over ICE's repeated arrests inside the federal building, where legal immigrants routinely appear for check-ins, asylum hearings or removal proceedings.

Lander - along with New York State Senators Jabari Brisport, Julia Salazar and Gustavo Rivera, and Assembly Members Emily Gallagher, Bobby Carroll, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Marcela Mitaynes, Claire Valdez, Tony Simone and Steven Raga - were arrested after they tried to reach the building's 10th floor, where ICE has been holding detainees in a makeshift detention facility.

During his arraignment on Friday, Lander insisted that the brief allegations in his violation notice do not constitute a crime.

"That charge is for 'unreasonably obstructing the usual use' of that federal property, of that tenth-floor elevator lobby," Lander told reporters outside of the courthouse on Friday. "But let's be clear, the 'usual use' of those floors of 26 Federal Plaza is as an immigration court. They are not usually used as a detention facility. They are not usually used as a place where masked federal agents - who don't possess warrants or give reasons for charges - separate families, haul people violently away, and make them sleep on the floor. That is not the usual use of the tenth floor of 26 Federal Plaza, a federal office building paid for by taxpayers."

Lander had been ordered to appear before a federal magistrate on a charge of unreasonably obstructing "the usual use" of entrances and corridors at 26 Federal Plaza, a federal property violation that carries up to 30 days in jail.

But prosecutors said Friday they were not seeking any incarceration, prompting Magistrate Judge Henry Ricardo to treat the Code of Federal Regulations charge as a petty offense.

Lander still faces up to five years of probation, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $5,000.

He was released without bond on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty on Friday.

Lander's attorneys from Sher Tremonte and Harris Trzaskoma said they plan to seek discovery to show that ICE's activities inside 26 Federal Plaza amount to the building's "usual use."

"I think it's critical to insist that we're not going to allow what ICE is doing in 26 Federal Plaza become normalized," Lander said Friday. "We want to expose it. We want it to make it public. We wanted to insist that it's not the unusual use of that building, and that's why I'm thinking to get to trial."

Lander was previously arrested by federal agencies at 26 Federal Plaza earlier this year while trying to escort someone through a crowd of ICE agents after a court hearing in June, when he was still running in the Democratic mayoral primaries.

He ultimately finished third in the first round of ranked-choice voting in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primaries and is now reportedly considering a challenge to Representative Dan Goldman in New York's 10th Congressional District.

Last month a group of detainees moved to hold the Department of Homeland Security in civil contempt over the agency's failing to improve conditions at 26 Federal Plaza.

Source: Courthouse News Service