Katie Glueck, Images of Handcuffed Democrats Start to Pile Up in Trump’s Crackdown, NYTimes, June 18, 2025.
A United States senator forced to the floor and handcuffed by federal agents for interrupting a news conference. A mayor taken into custody by masked officials in military-style fatigues. A political candidate pushed against a wall and handcuffed in a dispute at an immigration courthouse.
With tensions rising over President Trump’s mass deportation policies, the government crackdown is extending to the political opposition.
As Democrats struggle to push back against the administration, federal agents have arrested or clashed with a growing number of the party’s elected officials. The scenes of chaos reflect the tinderbox nature of this political moment, and the expanding national battles over due process, the rule of law and the system of checks and balances.
“This is executive authority, especially in the Department of Homeland Security, running out of control,” said Senator Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat. “Do the members of Congress need security details to defend themselves from the executive branch? God, I hope not.”
The most recent instance came on Tuesday, when Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a mayoral candidate, was arrested at an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan as he tried to escort a migrant whom agents were seeking to arrest. [...] Accusations of grandstanding flowed in quickly from Republicans on Tuesday.
“Stop using this as a means of self promotion in an effort to make yourself relevant in advance of an election,” Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, wrote on social media.
But to many Democrats, the images of the suit-and-tie-clad Mr. Lander being manhandled showed a chilling turn in the country’s politics.
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