In the center of New York, law enforcement officers detained more than 70 protesters demanding the release of migrants. Among the detainees are two senators and nine deputies of the city Assembly, the US Department of Homeland Security reports today, September 19.
"The Federal Security Service... and local police with federal law enforcement agencies arrested 71 agitators and politicians who advocated granting asylum to migrants, including Brad Lander, two New York senators and nine members of the New York State Assembly," the agency said in a statement.
Brad Lander is an auditor and former candidate for mayor of New York from the Democratic Party, who calls himself a "liberal Zionist." Together with other protesters, he came to the building where the office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the New York Immigration Court are located and began shouting that he would not leave until the migrants held there pending their court cases were released. Against this background, an unknown person reported a bomb planted in the building, as a result of which the building was cordoned off.
In June, Lander was already detained while trying to prevent the arrest of a migrant. Several other Democrats have also been involved in similar incidents, including Senator Alex Padilla and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.