New York lawmakers, immigrants’ rights activists and religious leaders were arrested on Thursday at protests both inside and outside the complex in lower Manhattan where federal officials have been routinely detaining immigrants amid the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
At least 70 demonstrators staged a direct-action protest to block access to and from the underground garage used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to transport people arrested by the agency. The nature of the protest prompted the New York police department (NYPD) to begin arresting people sitting in front of the access ramp.
Others protesting were arrested by federal officers inside the federal building, which houses a number of facilities including offices for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – the parent agency of Ice – as well as the FBI and an immigration court.
Inside, 11 elected officials were detained after demanding to see the conditions inside the Ice intake facility on the 10th floor of the building, which has recently prompted reports of allegedly poor treatment.
These included Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, who was previously arrested there in June by masked federal agents, provoking uproar and objections from New York governor Kathy Hochul. Lander was a Democratic party mayoral candidate this year but teamed up to cross-endorse eventual primary winner Zohran Mamdani.
In recent months, breaking norms, Ice has been showing up outside immigration court and arresting people in the hallways as they come out of hearings in the small courtrooms.
Tony Simone, a New York state representative who was arrested at the protest, said: “We will be back here time and time again,” and encouraged other officials to stand up to the administration’s aggressive immigration policies. “Ice is not welcome in our state,” he added.
In a statement responding to the protests, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that Lander and the other politicians were “pulling a stunt in attempt to get their 15 minutes of fame while endangering DHS personnel and detainees”.
“As a result of the chaos caused by Lander, Federal Protective Service called NYPD,” McLaughlin said, adding that local police and federal law enforcement “arrested 71 agitators and sanctuary politicians”, in a reference to New York being a sanctuary city where local law enforcement is supposed to limit or deny cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
In the statement, McLaughlin accused the immigrants who were kept inside the Ice intake facility of being gang members, possessing fentanyl or having a gun.
“Brad Lander’s obsession with attacking the brave men and women of law enforcement, physically and rhetorically, must stop NOW,” McLaughlin said.
Outside, dozens of protesters gathered with signs and banners as they crowded together to block the garage used by Ice – the only entry and exit for official vehicles at the complex at 26 Federal Plaza.
As the protesters sat and chanted a few meters from the garage entrance, NYPD officers arrived and ordered them to disperse.
When protesters refused, the officers, including members of the controversial Strategic Response Group, moved in to arrest them. New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams was the first to be detained from the demonstration outside.
Others arrested near the garage included city council members Tiffany Cabán and Sandy Nurse and state assembly member Phara Souffrant Forrest.
Police motioned to the people who remained sitting, then lifted up some, cuffing them with zip ties while they continued to chant. The protesters were then moved and lined up before being placed in a police van.
Inside, state senators Julia Salazar, Jabari Brisport and Gustavo Rivera and state representatives Jessica González-Rojas, Marcela Mitaynes, Emily Gallagher, Claire Valdez, Tony Simone, Robert Carroll and Steven Raga were arrested. The 11, including Lander, were charged with a federal misdemeanor for blocking the corridors, then released with a date to appear in court.
“To be clear, Ice should be abolished,” Brisport said. He described how when the lawmakers had requested to enter the Ice intake facility, officials zip-tied the doors shut and added duct tape over windows to prevent the politicians from seeing inside.
Cabán said: “As an elected official, it is my duty to protect my constituents from cruelty and violence. Ice is cruel and violent. Ice puts New Yorkers and our democracy in danger.”
Related: One day inside the deportation machine at a federal immigration court in New York
She called for the abolition of Ice and said federal enforcement officers were “kidnapping my neighbors”, detaining and sending people to “cruel for-profit detention camps”. She also called for proposed legislation to be passed, including the New York for All bill prohibiting local and state agencies from assisting in federal immigration enforcement.
“Ice has terrorized over 3,000 New Yorkers this year, kidnapping them as they attempt to attend court dates and immigration check-ins, holding them in inhumane conditions, without medicine, changes of clothing, adequate food, beds or contact with the outside world, snatching away due process,” Cabán said.
