For Democrats, Handcuffs Are the Latest Symbol of Resistance to Trump

The Washington Post

15:31 JST, June 21, 2025

A growing number of Democratic officials are being arrested in tense situations with federal agents over immigration, raising their profiles in a party angry with President Donald Trump’s policies.

Images of Democratic officials bound in handcuffs, jostling in scrums with immigration officers or standing defiantly on courthouse steps have ricocheted across the internet in recent weeks, creating some new political battle lines in Trump’s second term. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate, was the latest Democratic elected official to be arrested after he tried to escort a defendant from his appearance at an immigration court this week.

While many Democrats contend the frequency of these confrontations reflects the Trump administration’s harsh law enforcement tactics, party lawmakers and strategists also say they show how leaders are responding to Democratic voters’ desire for a robust resistance that goes beyond staid speeches and statements.

“In this moment of time, we have to find our political courage,” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey), who was indicted last month for allegedly assaulting two federal agents during a fracas outside an immigration detention facility, said in an interview. “If we let this get so out of control and let so much space for what this president is doing with no resistance, we are going to find ourselves in a place that we will not even be able to recognize this country anymore.”

Yet some in the party are uneasy with the clashes, suggesting the politics may work against them on issues of immigration and law enforcement, which have tended to favor Republicans. Addressing the scrum that led to McIver’s indictment, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) told Axios this week, “Where I come from, if you shove a police officer, you’re probably getting arrested.”

McIver has denied any wrongdoing. Since that May 9 dustup in New Jersey, at least three other Democratic elected officials and a judge have been detained, arrested or indicted for allegedly interfering with Trump’s mass deportation effort. With more and more of them finding themselves – and at times placing themselves – in standoffs with federal agents, party leaders are navigating the combustible politics of a more visibly contentious dynamic with a president they have denounced as tyrannical.

“The currency right now in the anti-Trump coalition is: Who is ready to fight? Who is willing to fight? And who knows how to fight?” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. “The Democratic politicians who are being punished right now are the ones who are being careful and plodding and fighting a 21st century war with 20th century tactics. The ones who are being rewarded are the ones throwing caution to the wind.”

In recent weeks, Trump has endorsed the idea of arresting the sitting governor of California, threatened to target Democratic inner cities with deportation raids, deployed National Guard troops and active duty Marines to Los Angeles against the wishes of local officials and used the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants without a court hearing. Since taking office, he has signed executive orders calling on the Justice Department to investigate a wide range of political foes, including law firms, Democratic fundraising organizations and even his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Against that backdrop, Democratic officials have expressed a growing willingness to be seen putting their freedom on the line as a response to Trump’s actions.

“Arrest me! Let’s go,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week on MSNBC, responding to threats from Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar. Homan has warned that any one who interferes with immigration enforcement will be arrested.

Newsom later told the Atlantic that his staff recently held an all-hands meeting to plan how to respond if the governor of the nation’s most populous state is detained by federal authorities.

Trump and his allies are ramping up their “law-and-order” political emphasis, accusing Democrats of committing crimes to score political points. The officials who end up in handcuffs, the White House says, are appropriately suffering the consequences of their actions.

“Here’s the real story: why do so many Democrat officials feel emboldened to brazenly break the law and then complain when they are held accountable?” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement suggesting Democrats were to blame for an increase in assaults against immigration officers.

Democrats and some legal scholars have raised concerns about the trend of public officials being detained, arguing it could have a chilling effect on prominent administration critics. In particular, the administration’s willingness to arrest members of Congress marks a “terribly unhealthy” departure from past norms, said Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

“This kind of treatment of the membership was quite literally unthinkable for the framers of the Constitution,” he said. “What’s happening today would have been as jarring to their imaginations as this is to our own.”

The clash between the president and his political opponents escalated earlier this month when demonstrators took to the streets in Los Angeles to protest immigration raids. Trump responded by federalizing thousands of the state’s National Guard members and sending in hundreds of Marines to quell the unrest. He told reporters that he would arrest Newsom if he were Homan, calling the prospect of locking up the California governor “great.”

Newsom set the tone for the emerging Democratic response with a June 10 speech describing a “perilous moment” and calling for all Americans to “stand up” and reject silence and complicity.

“This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,” he said in the speech, which won plaudits from others in the party. “Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.”

In the following days, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Lander were manhandled and handcuffed by law enforcement after embracing more confrontational approaches to challenging federal officials over Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Padilla was forcibly removed, pushed onto the ground and placed in handcuffs after he interrupted a June 12 news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Padilla had identified himself as a senator and tried to question Noem about deportations when Secret Service and FBI agents forced him out of the room and handcuffed him. He was not charged or arrested, but Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin accused him of “disrespectful political theater” and alleged without evidence that he had “lunged toward Secretary Noem.”

McLaughlin similarly accused Lander, who has been trailing in the polls ahead of New York’s primary next week, of endangering the safety of law enforcement safety “to get a viral moment.”

“No one is above the law,” she said in a statement, using a phrase that Democrats repeatedly levied against Trump last year as he faced a series of criminal prosecutions. “And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.”

Trump’s allies have reveled in the spate of Democrats being detained, arrested or charged with crimes, noting the change in fortunes after Trump’s legal troubles during the 2024 presidential campaign.

But just as Trump used his prosecutions to raise loads of money and rally support from his party, many Democrats are seeing political benefits as they cast themselves as political prisoners standing up to a dictatorial president.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who saw a trespassing charge against him dropped, surged to finish second in the state’s gubernatorial primary last week and has been floated as a top contender for lieutenant governor. He has sued the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey and the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Newark field office for false arrest.

Padilla and Lander each catapulted onto the national stage after being placed in handcuffs, with their allies using the moments to drive fundraising and support. During a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Padilla referred to Trump as a “tyrant.”

Beyond the Trump administration, other Republicans have decried Democrats’ actions as self-promotional gimmicks.

“To all of my colleagues in government – just because you have a title, does not give license to touch, assault, resist, or interfere with law enforcement,” Rep. Michael Lawler (R-New York) wrote on X after Lander’s arrest. “Furthermore, stop using this as a means of self promotion in an effort to make yourself relevant in advance of an election.”

Lander was ultimately released without charges.

While Democrats have largely rallied around their arrested colleagues, some have suggested that the party may be mishandling the politics of immigration or misreading the optics of the moment.

“I don’t think politics as theater is what our job is here,” Golden said in his interview with Axios last week, referring to the incidents involving McIver and Padilla.

McIver, who called Golden’s comments “unfortunate,” said she has watched the recent string of Democratic arrests with a mix of disbelief and resolve. She is accused of assaulting two officers as they attempted to arrest Baraka outside an immigration detention center. McIver and two other members of Congress had been attempting to conduct oversight at the facility last month when a scuffle erupted between the lawmakers and masked law enforcement agents.

Prosecutors say she slammed her forearms into the bodies of the officers while trying to protect Baraka. McIver, who was pushed from the back during the scrum, plans to plead not guilty. She has said her indictment is an attempt to intimidate Democrats from speaking out against Trump.

“I wake up every day, and I’m like, ‘What the hell, with this administration?’” she said. “It’s just truly, truly a sad time for me and a sad time for many Americans.”

Members of Congress have the right to make unannounced visits at ICE facilities, but DHS recently issued a new policy limiting lawmakers’ access to certain detention centers.

McIver is charged with two felony and one misdemeanor count of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with a federal officer, according to the indictment, which was unveiled by Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Habba is a close ally of Trump and his former personal defense attorney. McIver faces up to eight years in prison on each of the two felony charges should she be convicted and up to a year if found guilty of the misdemeanor.

Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan is also set to face trial next month after Justice Department lawyers accused her of interfering with an immigration arrest. She has pleaded not guilty. DHS agents entered the Manhattan office of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) last month, briefly handcuffing one of his aides.

In a video of the incident published by the news outlet Gothamist, the aide can be seen crying while an agent detains her. She was later released without charges.