Several protesters arrested after ICE raid thwarted in New York City

A raid by federal immigration authorities on Saturday in New York City was thwarted by about 200 protesters, several of whom were arrested after scuffles with police officers.

The episode was the latest in which citizen activists have stood up to agents enforcing Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda through targeted raids in various cities across the country after his second presidency began in January.

Similar recent actions by federal authorities elsewhere, including in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Chicago, Illinois, have been met with resistance by citizens opposed to the administration’s escalating program of detentions and deportations.

According to the New York Times, Saturday’s confrontation took place on the edge of Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood, where US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were assembling with counterparts from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The newspaper reported that scuffles with police took place at a parking garage in lower Manhattan beginning in the late morning, with some protesters blocking the government vehicles from leaving with makeshift barricades including garbage bags and metal barriers.

By early afternoon, the Times said, about 200 protesters had gathered, chanting and shouting at the agents, and the confrontation turned violent when some of the vehicles emerged from the garage and were chased along Canal Street. A number of the protesters were “hurling planters and trash cans after them”, the newspaper said, and a masked occupant in one of the vehicles sprayed several people with what appeared to be a chemical irritant.

Time magazine reported government agents abandoned their raid, which would have been their second large-scale operation in six weeks in lower Manhattan. In October, dozens of federal agents swarmed through Chinatown and arrested nine people DHS said were in the US illegally. That raid attracted another spontaneous protest by residents and sparked criticism by leading New York Democrats, including Zohran Mamdani, who was elected mayor of the city in November.

A spokesperson for Mamdani, who will take office on 1 January, condemned Saturday’s federal action as “cruel and inhumane” in a statement to Time.

“New York City’s more than three million immigrants are central to our city’s strength, vitality, and success, and the mayor-elect remains steadfast in his commitment to protecting the rights and dignity of every single New Yorker, upholding our sanctuary laws, and de-escalation rather than use of unnecessary force,” said Monica Klein, of Mamdani’s transition team.

A statement sent to Time by DHS blamed the violence on the protesters and said arrests were made by the New York police department (NYPD) assisting with crowd control.

“Following social media posts calling agitators to ICE’s location in New York City, individuals dressed in black clothing with backpacks, face masks, and goggles showed up and began to obstruct federal law enforcement officers including by blocking the parking garage,” it said.

“NYPD was called and responded to hundreds of violent rioters, which resulted in the arrest of multiple agitators.”

The involvement of the NYPD and its strategic response group (SRG) in Saturday’s action drew criticism from local politicians, who noted it was barred by city law from assisting the federal government in immigration arrests.

“It’s really despicable,” Christopher Marte, the Democratic city commissioner, told the New York Times.

“It seems like the NYPD, specifically the SRG, is working to clear the way for ICE agents to go out in our city to do arrests and put people in the process of deportation.”

Mamdani announced after his election that he would retain Jennifer Tisch as NYPD commissioner a year after she was appointed by outgoing mayor Eric Adams.

The Times said Tisch had a phone conversation Saturday with Ricky Patel, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, the law enforcement arm of DHS. During the call, a source said, Tisch called Saturday’s government action “unacceptable” and said it put New Yorkers, federal agents and NYPD officers in harm’s way.