NYC NOW - Midday News: FAA Upgrades at Newark Airport, NYC Backs Legal Efforts to Free Detained Student, and Rep. Jerry Nadler Calls for DHS Probe After Aide Handcuffed

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the FAA has completed critical updates to Newark Airport’s outdated air traffic control systems after last month’s outage. Meanwhile, New York City is backing legal efforts to free Dylan Contreras, a Bronx high school student taken into ICE custody during a routine court appearance. And Congressman Jerry Nadler is calling for a federal investigation after Homeland Security officers handcuffed one of his staffers inside his Manhattan office. WNYC’s Arya Sundaram has the details.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, June 3rd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Some news of improvement at Newark International Liberty Airport, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the Federal Aviation Administration is finishing upgrades to the region's outdated air traffic control systems, which went offline last month and prompted several controllers at Newmobile. to take trauma leave. Officials blame the outages on outdated communications cables,

but Duffy says Verizon has now updated those lines with modern fiber optic wires. The equipment's been working, right? It's like I'm driving my car and I'm hearing some knocks. I got some smoke coming out of the back. I see I got some problems. And it's incumbent upon us to tell America we have problems and it has to be fixed. The Trouble Travel Hub also just reopened a runway that had been closed for construction. New York City is stepping in to support a high school student from the Bronx who was recently detained by U.S. immigration and customs enforcement.

The city administration in a legal brief says it backs legal efforts to release Dylan Contraeers from ICE detention. The 20-year-old has no criminal history. ICE agents took him into custody during what was expected to be a routine appearance in immigration court. The city says his arrest discourages immigrants from showing up from mandible. court appointments. Contreras is believed to be the first immigration arrest of a city school student during President Trump's second term. He's being held at a detention center in western Pennsylvania. Seventy forward lots of sunshine out there now, sunny and 81 for a high in a calm wind, then tomorrow slightly warmer under sunny skies and Thursday even warmer, sunny and near 90 degrees. Stay tuned for more after the break.

It's all things considered on WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. Representative Jerry Nadler is demanding a congressional investigation into a dramatic incident last week, in which one of his aides was handcuffed by Department of Homeland Security Police in the lawmakers' Manhattan office. WNYC's Arias Sundarm first reported on the incident. She's with us today to walk us through what happened and what we know so far. So, Ari, this incident in question, DHS handcuffing one of Nadler's staffers took place on Wednesday. What do we know about what happened then? I actually got video of the arrest from someone who was there at the time.

You can see a DHS officer handcuffing the aide while she's crying. And meanwhile, there's another officer trying to enter a private area of the office, and another staff member is preventing him from doing so. I'm giving a warrant. The staffer asks for a warrant, which the officer doesn't have, but eventually she lets him in. You harboring rioters in the office. You can hear the officer claiming the Nadler staffers are harboring rioters. And another officer claims the handcuffed aide pushed him.

But both Nadler's office and DHS said no one was arrested. What is DHS's explanation for all this? A DHS spokesperson actually sent us a statement about the incident. They said officers were responding to information that protesters were in the office. And they visited to, quote, ensure the safety and well-being of those present. They said an officer temporary detained one individual who prevented them from conducting a security check. But that doesn't entirely compute with the video, where, as you just heard, we can hear DHS staff accusing the office of harboring rioters. And Nadler and two witnesses who are present tell a different story, too.

Nadler said some of his staff members had been watching DHS officers detained migrants at an immigration court in the same building. And he said that his staff invited some other people observing the arrests up to his office, which is just one floor above the immigration court. And two of those observers talked to me and said the same thing. They said they were there for about 20 minutes before DHS police entered, and that the handcuff aide didn't push the officer. Nadler actually says it was the other way around, that the officer pushed her. How was Nadler reacting as of now? You know, his office actually didn't respond to us about what happened initially, even though we told them that we had video and photos of the incident, but he responded the next day in a statement he posted on social media. He also spoke about it on CNN this morning.

Now, the fact is that this was totally unacceptable. The tactics were totally unacceptable. And they needed the warrant. And my office is a congressional office. It's a completely separate branch of government, a co-eagle branch of government, with the executive for which they work. And they had no right to come in. They had no right to disregard the co-eagle branch of government,

which is to say Congress. Nadler also did an interview with the New York Times, and he accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate members of Congress. And he said, they're behaving like fascists. Have any other politicians responded? Governor Kathy Hokel said it was unbelievable. And House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, he is also from New York. He told CNN that the Trump administration was, quote,

clearly trying to intimidate Democrats. And I think it's important to note that this incident isn't happening in a vacuum. It comes as tension is bubbling between Democrats and President Trump's administration over immigration enforcement. Just last month, Newark Mayor Ross Baraka and New Jersey Representative LaMonica McIver were arrested by federal officials after they protested outside a new immigration detention center in Newark. Now, Nadler called for an investigation. Do we know yet if it'll happen? Right. He said that on CNN. You know, he said he plans to send a letter to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jim Jordan. He's a Republican from Ohio. He said he plans to call for a hearing and an investigation into the incident and other ICE tactics. I reached out. to Representative Jordan's office and haven't heard back yet.

That's WNMIC's ARIA, ARIA, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast.