View this post on the web at [link removed]

Yesterday, I appeared before Magistrate Judge Henry Ricardo in the U.S. Federal Courthouse for the Southern District in lower Manhattan.
I was arraigned on charges stemming from my arrest on September 18th, along with a dozen other elected officials – when we demanded entry to the area on 10th floor at 26 Federal Plaza that is being used as a detention facility. When we were not allowed entry, we sat on the floor and sang.
For that, we were charged under Section 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 41 CFR 102-74, 390(b). The offense we are charged with is: “unreasonably obstructs the usual use of entrances, foyers, lobbies, corridors, offices, elevators, stairways, or parking lots” in the federal courthouse.
Here’s the critical thing: the “usual” use of the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, prior to this spring, was not as a detention facility, where people who have been violently ripped apart from their families by masked ICE agents – who don’t identify themselves, present a warrant, or give a reason for the arrest – are forced to sleep on the floor, in cruel and inhumane conditions. There’s nothing usual about that.
The usual use (of those entrances, foyers, lobbies, corridors, offices, elevators, stairways, and parking lots) is as part of the U.S. Immigration Court. It is for the operation of the rule of law, where people have the opportunity – pursuant to the Global Convention Against Torture, and U.S law – to present their credible fear of persecution if they are deported.
We did not unreasonably obstruct the usual use of 26 Federal Plaza. We are not guilty of the charge.
Someone else is, though:
ICE unreasonably obstructs the usual use of the Federal building.
Kristi Noem unreasonably obstructs the usual use of the Federal building.
Donald Trump unreasonably obstructs the usual use of the Federal building.
The crime is not what we were doing in the elevator lobby, demanding entry, and then sitting on the floor and singing when we were denied. The crime is what ICE is doing on the other side of the door.
We must not allow the cruel, inhumane, authoritarian actions of Trump’s ICE to become viewed as “usual” or “normal.” It is not normal.
That’s why I pled not guilty yesterday. And that’s why I’m taking this case to trial.
Of course, I don’t have nearly as much to fear as the individuals we accompany in Immigration Court, or who are being grabbed off the street. Not even close.
Earlier in the day, at the very same courthouse where I was arraigned, lawyers had to demand the release of Aissatou Diallou [ [link removed] ], a home health aide who has lived in the U.S. since 2001, when she immigrated here from Guinea. She is the aunt of the remarkable Adama Bah [ [link removed] ], founder of Afrikana [ [link removed] ], a Harlem-based nonprofit that welcomes people with compassion and dignity.
Diallou had been detained at LaGuardia while waiting to board a flight to Texas to visit her son for Thanksgiving, and was shipped to a detention center in Louisiana.
Southern District Judge Arun Subramanan ordered her release, and eviscerated the government lawyers who tried to explain the nonsense reasons for her abduction. Aissatou, thankfully, had a very able legal team, led by Rebecca Press of the excellent group Unlocal [ [link removed] ], a non-profit organization that provides direct immigration legal representation to NYC’s immigrant communities.
And I have great lawyers, too: Deirdre Von Dornum of Sher Tremonte, and Justine Harris of Harris Trzaskoma, and their able teams (you may remember Deirdre and Justine from our fight against cruel conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park). Happily, despite the fact that the federal prosecutors asked Judge Ricardo to impose bail, he released me on my own recognizance.
Of course, far too many of the individuals seeking asylum here, and facing abduction by those ICE agents, don’t have any lawyers at all. That, sadly, is “usual” – but it’s something we can change.
What we’re fighting for – at 26 Federal Plaza, and out in our neighborhoods – is equal justice under law. And we won’t stop until that is what’s usual.
Brad

Unsubscribe [link removed]?