Who is Meg Barnette? All about NYC mayoral candidate's Brad Lander's wife and their kids

1. Who is Meg Barnette? All about NYC mayoral candidate's Brad Lander's wife and their kids

Who is Meg Barnette? All about NYC mayoral candidate's Brad Lander's wife and their kids ByShweta Kukreti Jun 18, 2025 12:11 AM IST Read this news in brief form Share Via Copy Link Meg Barnette, the wife of New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander, opened up about his arrest on social media.

Brad Lander, the Democratic mayoral candidate and comptroller of New York City, was detained by federal officials at an immigration court on Tuesday after he attempted to escort a person who the authorities were trying to arrest.

Brad Lander with his wife Meg Barnette and their kids(Lander for Mayor)

Lander's wife, Meg Barnette, tweeted from her husband's official X account to confirm the imprisonment. Lander still remains in custody, according to Lander campaign spokesman Dora Pekec.

It is one of several high-profile instances when federal authorities have arrested a Democratic politician. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who interrupted Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem during a news conference five days earlier, was arrested and thrown to the ground.

The viral footage of the arrest shows an agent telling Lander, “You're obstructing.”

As he was detained, Lander remarked, “I'm standing right here in the hallway, I'm not obstructing.”

Lander, who was escorted down a corridor and into an elevator, told agents “You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens asking for a judicial warrant.”

Meg Barnette, Lander's wife, said at a news conference after the arrest that “we were swarmed by a number of federal agents” after her husband had locked arms with the man after his immigration court appearance.

“What I saw was shocking and unacceptable,” she asserted, adding that “What I saw today was not the rule of law.”

Lander's arrest comes after Ras Baraka's

The incident took place during a nationwide wave of arrests by federal immigration officers outside immigration courtrooms.

Lander was detained nearly a month after Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was jailed for trespassing outside a federal immigration detention facility in his city.

Lander is a contender in the Democratic mayoral primary in the city. The election is scheduled for next week, and the race is now accepting early votes. The arrest was immediately criticized by other candidates.

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a primary candidate, stated, “This is the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump's ICE out of control — one can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE.”

Brad and his spouse, Meg Barnette, reside in Brooklyn, where they brought up their two kids, Rosa and Marek, who both completed public school in New York City.