New York City Democrat Brad Lander on Thursday was found not guilty of blocking an elevator during his attempt to inspect rooms holding detained immigrants, with a Manhattan federal court judge saying the politician looked low-energy when he sat in front of a lift – not willingly obstructive.
“He seemed tired and he seemed a bit resigned to the situation,” the magistrate judge Henry Ricardo said moments before he formally acquitted Lander, the former New York City comptroller, who is competing for incumbent Democrat Dan Goldman’s congressional seat.
Ricardo’s comments on Lander’s seeming fatigue came as he delivered the verdict in Lander’s one-day trial for allegedly obstructing a lift and elevator bank on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. This towering building is home to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office and immigration courts, among other outposts of federal agencies.
Lander and 10 other politicians were arrested there on 18 September 2025. After their demands to examine detention rooms amid allegations of overcrowding and squalor were rebuffed, they sat on the 10th floor elevator bank floor. They were ultimately detained and ticketed on violations, with Lander’s alleging that he “block[ed] entrances, foyers and corridors”.
Prosecutors needed to show that Lander intended to block the area, but Ricardo didn’t buy their argument. He noted that the politicians, although denied entry, complied with orders to stop banging on doors, and that a Federal Protective Service (FPS) officer said: “You can stay as long as you choose but you need to stop banging on the doors.”
Ricardo also didn’t agree with prosecutors’ contention that Lander’s and his colleagues’ chanting the words “we shall not move” signified motive to obstruct elevators.
“Mr Lander testified that when he sang those words, he was singing a civil rights anthem [and] that he was not issuing a declaration of an attempt to impede,” Ricardo said. And although Lander’s testimony about his reason behind singing these words was “self-serving”, Ricardo found it “credible”.
Shortly after the verdict, Lander bounded out of the courthouse with a grin. Wearing a Knicks cap, he alluded to this refrain.
“What we meant was: we shall not be moved from our commitment to civil rights and the rule of law,” he said.
