Hundreds showed up to protests that broke out in New York City on Tuesday evening after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids related to “selling counterfeit goods” were conducted in the Chinatown neighborhood earlier in the day and resulted in an unknown number of people being detained.
Hours after federal agents descended on lower Manhattan, demonstrators were seen assembling near the 26 Federal Plaza Immigration Building where they believed detainees were taken. Many shouted chants including “Ice out of New York” and “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
Videos of the raid show multiple masked and armed federal agents zip-tying and detaining a man, and shoving away onlookers. Throngs of New Yorkers followed the agents through the streets and down the sidewalks. An armored military vehicle was also seen rolling through the city streets.
“Is this worth the paycheck? Selling your soul?” one woman can be heard shouting at agents.
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The raid, which onlookers say involved more than 50 federal agents, took place in a well-known area of Manhattan where counterfeit handbags, accessories, jewelry and other goods are sold daily en masse – often to tourists.
It was unclear how many people were detained in the raid, but a witness told the New York Daily News that he saw at least seven individuals taken into custody.
The Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, told the Guardian: “ICE and its federal partners, including FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS-CI and CBP conducted a targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City, focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit good. During this law enforcement operation, rioters who were shouting obscenities, became violent and obstructed law enforcement duties including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement. Already one rioter has been arrested for assault on a federal officer.
“We have more details of the criminals arrested as soon they become available.”
Murad Awawdeh, vice-president of advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition, condemned the raid to reporters on Tuesday night and said that between 15 and 40 vendors were arrested. Awawdeh also noted that at least two locals were taken into custody for protesting and blocking ICE’s efforts.
“You don’t see these scenes in democracy. You see them in fascist regimes,” Awawdeh told a crowd. “We need to continue to stand up and fight back.”
Local city council member Christopher Marte told the City that he too was alarmed by the agents’ conduct.
“The amount of weapons that they had on the street pointed at bystanders, something I’ve never seen in my life,” he said.
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The NYPD distanced itself from the raids, tweeting that it had “no involvement in the federal operation that took place on Canal street this afternoon”. However, onlookers noted that NYPD riot police appeared to arrest several people protesting the ICE raid.
Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor, quote-tweeted the NYPD’s missive and emphasized: “New York City does not cooperate with federal law enforcement on civil deportations, in accordance with our local laws.”
“While we gather details about the situation, New Yorkers should know that we have no involvement. Our administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals,” he wrote.
New York City mayoral candidates Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo shared similar notes of criticism, with Mamdani calling the raid “aggressive and reckless” and Cuomo calling it “more about fear than justice, more about politics than safety”.
Both men – and Kathy Hochul, New York governor – took aim at Donald Trump directly.
“[Donald Trump] claims he’s targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’ Today his agents used batons and pepper spray on street vendors and bystanders on Canal Street. You don’t make New York safer by attacking New Yorkers,” Hochul wrote.
“Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop,” wrote Mamdani.
“Today’s ICE raid in Chinatown was an abuse of federal power by the Trump administration,” wrote Cuomo.
New York City councilmember Shahana Hanif also condemned the Ice raids in a press conference, saying that politicians across the city and the state were resolutely opposed to ICE raids.
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“We are against ICE’s blatantly violent tactics. Hordes of Ice agents showing up is unacceptable, immoral, unjust,” Hanif said.
ICE raids with masked agents have become commonplace in immigrant enclaves across the country as have protests against them. Protests against ICE have brought federal crackdowns to cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland.
Tuesday’s Chinatown raid is not the first in the New York City area in recent weeks. A 16 October raid in midtown Manhattan was the first known raid on a migrant shelter of the current Trump administration.
Notably, many ICE raids have come with documented violence. ICE has used extreme force in Chicago including pepper balling a priest, pepper-balling the inside of a journalist’s car, and body-slamming a US congressional candidate.
In New York, an ICE agent was “relieved of his duties” after body-slamming a woman to the ground in an immigration court house, but was reportedly back on the job shortly thereafter.
Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in ICE detention, and the agency has detained at least 170 US citizens in 2025.
