Brad Lander isn’t resisting at all.
Why was the NYC comptroller arrested? The feds announced that he would be charged with “assaulting law enforcement,” but no one witnessed that — and there was a video to substantiate witness accounts. The charges were dropped.
Why aren’t the federal agents in uniform — with badges identifying themselves and their agency? Why — in this case and many others, including agents working outdoors — are agents so often masked up?
Phillip Bump explores the latter question today. In May, the acting director of ICE asserted, “ICE officers have seen a staggering 413 percent increase in assaults against them.” Bump reports that not only is there no evidence for this, there is ample evidence against this claim. ICE reports show assaults on agents have declined from 2024 to 2025. DOJ and ICE have reported only a dozen such assaults in 2025. For context: in April ICE announced that it had conducted 66,463 arrests since Trump’s inauguration.
Furthermore, ICE has failed to provide “any examples of immigration officers being identified, targeted and assaulted outside of the context of an arrest.” The handful of agents purportedly assaulted or threatened with assault — with an elbow to the face (as reported by ICE), for instance — were all injured or threatened as they carried out their duties. None were doxed or targeted away from work. So why the masks?
On April 29, DHS released a report claiming, “Under President Trump, U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) is targeting the worst of the worst, 75% of their arrests are criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges.” Don’t believe it. A CNN report reveals a different story:
As the Trump administration has ramped up raids in Los Angeles and around the country, top officials have highlighted the capture of immigrants convicted of crimes like murder, assault and rape — describing them as “barbaric” criminals who “reigned terror” on American communities.
But internal government documents obtained by CNN show that only a fraction of migrants booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October have been convicted of serious violent or sexual crimes.
Public ICE data released by the administration shows that most immigrants currently in the agency’s custody do not have a prior criminal conviction. But the internal data reviewed by CNN goes deeper, making clear that even among those convicted of crimes, a substantial percentage faced only relatively minor charges.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump boasted on Truth Social of “the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History.” But hitting that goal requires arresting thousands of immigrants who are far from “the worst of the worst.” Last week Trump posted that his aggressive policy on immigration was “taking very good, long time workers away from” farmers and people (like Trump himself) in the hotel and leisure industry.
Trump’s federal police forces must arrest thousands of “very good, long time workers” to hit Stephen Miller’s goal of 3,000 arrests a week. In spite of Trump’s tweet on farms and hotels, the arrests have continued, at least in blue cities and states. And of course in Home Deport parking lots, carwashes, restaurants, swap meets — wherever immigrants gather to work or shop or go about their business.
American citizens, acting as though their rights will be protected, have been caught up in the confrontations staged by ICE:
Eventually, the feds announced that the young man would be charged with punching an agent, but — unless they release evidence that we haven’t yet seen — the video record would seem to contradict this charge. Instead, we see ICE agents acting aggressively, shoving people around, including folks making videos with their smartphones. We see no attacks by anyone in the crowd or any agents getting punched in the face.
The attack on communities in blue cities and states
Contrary to Trump’s campaign promises and the lies his administration continues to spread — his immigration crackdown is aimed overwhelmingly at people who are peaceful, productive members of their communities. It’s not making any of us safer or more secure.
Recall again, that federal forces are targeting blue cities and states, beginning with Los Angeles, California. This policy aims to disrupt life for everyone in this city. To punish Democratic officials duly elected and their constituents — citizens and immigrants alike. And it is succeeding, as the Los Angeles Times reports:
With federal immigration sweeps showing no signs of slowing across Southern California, there is growing concern from top officials, spiritual leaders and business owners that a climate of fear was sending more people underground and changing the rhythm of city life.
Once-bustling immigrant hubs, including MacArthur Park, the Garment District, downtown’s produce market and areas of the Eastside have seen a noticeable reduction in foot traffic over the last week, with some businesses forced to close as a result.
It comes as social media is rife with videos of people spotting immigration agents at shopping centers, markets and neighborhood streets, and capturing federal agents making arrests at swap meets, car washes and other businesses.
Trump’s aim is to punish his political enemies. He won’t make L.A. or California any safer. He certainly won’t make the city or America great again. Instead, he is wreaking havoc. He is terrorizing the immigrants who make things work in this community. He is with a single vindictive policy damaging the region’s economy.
This is terror inflicted on Americans, though Americans whom he and MAGA Republicans from Fox News to Twitter to the United States Congress have slandered as un-American (via a whole catalogue of demeaning and insulting language).
That’s why … the masked agents who look and act like street thugs — something we’ve witnessed in other less democratic, more authoritarian countries. The headlines right now, as our president pledges “within the next two weeks” to decide whether to drop a bunker-buster on Iran, feature MAGA factions wishing to avoid war. These America Firsters, from Marjorie Taylor Green (“We are sick and tired of foreign wars. All of them”) to Tucker Carlson to Steve Bannon to JD Vance, are fine with creating fear and inflicting pain on vulnerable people in communities dominated by MAGA critics — and on collective punishment on whole regions. The immigration raids aim to do harm to Americans who politically oppose Donald Trump.
This administration and today’s Republican Party are just fine with the divisive, destructive assault on blue cities and states. Unleashing force and generating fear appeal to the wannabe strongman in the White House. ICE, DHS, DOJ, the National Guard, the Marines, and more: the President can unleash the power of the federal government to inflict great harm on his political enemies. Trump is directing a war against half of America.