12/12/2025
In October, dozens of federal agents, including ICE, poured out onto Canal Street to conduct an immigration raid. A spontaneous crowd surrounded the agents, but by the time local immigration advocates and organizers got there, it was too late. Authorities had already detained several street vendors. Two weeks ago, though, it was the protesters who surprised ICE.
Organizers had a feeling the authorities might take advantage of Thanksgiving weekend to stage their next raid. Their suspicion grew when volunteers who were patrolling Canal Street noticed early that morning that there were more vehicles on the road than usual and many of them were moving toward a garage nearby. Activists alerted each other in Signal chats; Samantha, a young organizer, grabbed a mask, a hat, and 25 whistles and rushed downtown.
By the time she arrived, about 50 people were blocking the garage’s exit. They locked arms and chanted, “ICE out of New York!” Protesters dragged trash cans and wood pallets to put in the federal agents’ path. Others stood in front of government vans, stopping and slowing their progress all the way to Holland Tunnel, about a mile away. By the time the NYPD arrived a half-hour later, organizers say the protest had grown to some 200 people. Police eventually cleared a path for ICE to leave.
“These were all delay tactics — we didn’t interfere with any arrests — but the delays allowed word to spread, and they got no one. We did good work,” a protestor said.
Activists in New York say more than 500 people patrol at least 20 neighborhoods daily, led by an autonomous patchwork of people. “The more eyes you have in all areas, the more likely you are to suspect things and the quicker people can converge to get together if there’s a sighting,” Samantha says.
Read Sanya Mansoor’s full report on New York City’s growing resistance movement against ICE: https://nymag.visitlink.me/AgippM