00:00I am just fine. I lost a button. But, you know, I'm going to sleep in my bed tonight, safe with my family. I'm grateful to hear that the charges are not being brought. But if they are, I've got a lawyer. I don't have to worry about my due process rights.
00:20At that elevator, I was separated from someone named Edgardo, who I had just met a couple of minutes earlier. Edgardo is in ICE detention, and he's not going to sleep in his bed tonight.
00:33So far as I know, he has no lawyer. He has been stripped of his due process rights by a government and a judge that owe him a credible fear hearing before they deport him, and yet have decided instead to strip folks like Edgardo and the prior gentleman that I walked out with, whose native language is Yoruba, and who only got a translator in French.
00:58And so when the judge said, do you understand what it means that after I dismiss your case, you'll have no status? He said, no status, as he recognized what was about to happen. So I will be fine. But Edgardo is not going to be fine. And the rule of law is not fine. And our constitutional democracy is not fine.
01:23This is the third week in a row that I've come down here with immigrant art
01:29to accompany families out of this building. And before today, I had walked four families out, all of whom were afraid that they were going to be detained by ICE agents,
01:45and yet who were able to walk out of the building, even though they had had their cases dismissed and are subject to expedited removal, but were nonetheless able to get out of that building and at least get back to their kids, get back to their families, try to figure out what's next.
02:01Today, Meg, I really want to say a big thank you to my wife, Meg, who was here with me doing it.
02:09Meg and I were able to walk out a family of four, beautiful, what did you get their names? No, so four, like a mom, a dad, a five-year-old and a four-year-old, beautiful kids.
02:23Meg's Spanish is a lot better than mine. So she took their names. They have one week. The judge gave them one week to come back and talk about why they fear being deported to their country.
02:36And so we're certainly going to follow up with them. We got their number and are going to make sure that at least they get as much help as we can provide,
02:43as New York City, as New York State can provide to help them avoid being separated or being detained.
02:50But then when we went back upstairs, again, we had these next two cases, this Yoruba gentleman and then Edgardo, who we just tried to walk out of the building.
03:02And I think you saw the video. All I tried to do was just hold Edgardo's arm and ask the ICE agents, do you have a warrant?
03:13And they would not show me the warrant. And I said I'd let go of his arm as soon as they showed it to me.
03:19And they did not show it to me. And you saw what happened.
03:23I will say they treated me just fine after that. And it is true, Governor, you know, as you just said, that the two ICE agents who detained me,
03:34one is a Pakistani Muslim immigrant who lives in Brighton Beach,
03:38and the other is an Indo-Guyanese gentleman who lives in South Ozone Park.
03:45This is what New York City is. It is the greatest immigrant city that the world has ever known.
03:52And we are not going to allow Donald Trump to wreck the rule of law, to deny people due process,
04:00and to turn our country into something that doesn't meet its obligations under international law.
04:08And so I just engaged in that tradition of accompaniment, of trying to bear witness,
04:14of trying to walk peacefully with someone, of trying to make sure that the rules are followed,
04:19and that we would know what their badge numbers were, and that we would be able to see the judicial warrant
04:24before he was detained, because we don't know where Edgardo is now. No one is able to be in touch with him.
04:31And our country is better than that.
04:35We are normalizing family separation. We are normalizing due process rights violations.
04:41We are normalizing the destruction of constitutional democracy, and we're not going to stand by and let it happen.
04:48In this city, 8 million New Yorkers, 40% of them, themselves immigrants, themselves foreign-born,
04:55like those two officers, 50% of New Yorkers live in mixed-status households, including 1 million children.
05:06That is the future of our city that we are fighting for, and I was proud to be out here with Immigrant Arc.
05:12I will keep coming back. I do want to say, you know, I am grateful to the governor for coming.
05:19I'm grateful to all of you for being here.
05:21I believe it is important to show up and bear witness and accompany people,
05:26and to do it in the tradition of nonviolent witness.
05:33We are not going to give Donald Trump and his goons any excuse for ratcheting up conflict or violence.
05:42It is possible to show up and protect New Yorkers and protect people who have the right to seek asylum
05:48and insist on due process and do it in the best traditions of nonviolent witness
05:54and show that this city, the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known,
05:58the city with that statue out in the harbor saying,
06:02send me your tired, your poor, your wretched masses yearning to breathe free,
06:07that we will do it in a way that honors that statue, that honors our traditions,
06:12that shows what New Yorkers look like.
06:14Thank you all very much for being out here.
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