An aide to US Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) was handcuffed and briefly detained by Department of Homeland Security police in his Manhattan office on Wednesday.
The video of the incident, first shared and reported on by Gothamist’s Arya Sundaram on Friday, shows DHS officers entering Nadler’s district office and accusing staff members of “harboring rioters.” An aide, whose face was blurred out, is crying while being handcuffed.
According to Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s chief of staff, who spoke with The New York Times, the federal agents were angry because the congressman’s team had seen the officers detaining migrants in the building—Nadler’s office is one floor above a federal immigration court—and because his staff had invited advocates who had also witnessed the detentions into the representative’s office.
The aide was not arrested and not charged with a crime, both Nadler’s office and a DHS spokesperson confirmed to Gothamist.
“The Trump administration is trying to intimidate members of Congress,” Nadler told the Times in an interview on Saturday. “They’re behaving like fascists.” President Donald Trump and his administration are using “totalitarian or even authoritarian practices” Nadler said. “We have to fight them. We don’t want to be a fascist country.”
The DHS statement on Thursday made no mention of Nadler’s team “harboring rioters,” as the agents claimed the day before. Instead, according to the statement, the agents entered Nadler’s office because they had been told that protesters were there and were concerned for the safety of his staff members.
Two immigration advocates present at the time, who asked Gothamist to remain anonymous, said that they were at the courthouse advising migrants as plainclothes ICE officers were questioning people there for court appearances. The advocates say they were threatened with arrest for loitering by the officers and were then invited, along with another advocate, to Nadler’s office by his staff.
In the video, a staff member who was not detained is standing in a doorway and asks one of the agents to show her a warrant. The agent claims the officers do not need a warrant and walks past her. Another officer, the one handcuffing the aide, is heard telling her not to resist. The aide is heard asking officers, “What’s your problem?” adding, “they’re here for a meeting. They’re constituents.”
