Immigration activists interact with NYPD as they block a garage used by ICE vans during a protest against a purported ICE raid on Canal Street on November 29, 2025 in New York City. Activists assembled outside of a garage used by ICE and later they tried to block ICE vehicles as they traveled from the garage down Canal Street to the Holland Tunnel to exit Manhattan. Credit - Stephanie Keith—2025 Getty Images
For the second time in just over a month, a large-scale raid by dozens ofimmigration agentsin New York City was met with a similarly large-scale counter-protest. This time, however, the protesters thwarted the authorities' plans before they began.
Multiple arrests were made on Saturday during scuffles on the edge of Chinatown, during which hundreds of protesters faced off with federal agents, eventually supported by the New York Police Department (NYPD), as they prepared to launch araid in the area.
It comes just a month after a raid by 50 federal agents using military-style vehicles stormed nearby Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, and was met with a protest ofhundredsin response.
Read more:Inside Chicago's Battle With Trump
The confrontation also comes amid a reported surge in activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city in recent weeks, despite a friendly encounter between the Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump earlier this month that appeared to avert a showdown over the issue.
But the mass counter-protest of some 200 people demonstrates the challenges federal authorities will face in enforcing President Trump's hardline immigration agenda in a city that is rooted in its immigrant identity.
Immigration crackdowns in other cities like Chicago and Portland have been met with similar responses from locals opposed to the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown, but New York could prove to be the toughest challenge yet.
Saturday's incident demonstrated how the city's physical infrastructure —its narrow streets and densely populated areas, built mostly by immigrant labor over the last two centuries—can impede ICE's so-called "enforcement surges," which involve large numbers of federal agents conducting sweeping raids, often moving quickly in and out of an area.
Not only are large-scale ICE raids being met by hundreds of protesters, but in two months, New York will be led by an immigrant mayor for the first time in 50 years. Mamdani, who moved to the United States when he was seven years old,campaigned on protectingNew York's immigrant community from these very same raids. He received a boost early in his campaign from a viral moment in which hescreamed at Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, accusing him of abandoning the First Amendment.
A spokesperson from Mamdani's transition team told TIME on Sunday in response to the clashes in Manhattan that the Mayor-elect "has made it clear — including to the President — that these raids are cruel and inhumane, and fail to advance genuine public safety."
"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 deescalation rather than use of unnecessary force," Monica Klein, a transition spokesperson, added.
'Agitators'in 'goggles'
The confrontation began on Saturday, when agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gathered in a parking garage in a federal building on the edge of Chinatown in preparation for a raid.
Videos of the incidentshow protesters blockingthe agents as theytry to leave the garagein their cars. The crowd then swells to the hundreds, as more NYPD officers arrive.
Later, according to reports, federal agents emerged from the garage and assisted the NYPD in detaining protesters.
The DHS blamed "agitators" for blocking the federal agents in a statement to TIME.
"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," the statement said. "NYPD was called and responded to hundreds of violent rioters, which resulted in the arrest of multiple agitators."
Murad Awawdeh, President of the immigrant advocacy group the New York Immigration Coalition and a member of Mamdani'stransition team, said the protests this weekend were a sign that the city would put up fierce resistance to federal immigration operations.
"New York City is unlike any other place in this country or even the world, and what you have seen yesterday and time and again is that New Yorkers of all stripes, across all creeds, are not going to allow a rogue, lawless, violent and horrific agency to continue to mess with their neighbors," he told TIME.
"I think the message here is that we're all walking each other home together," he added.
The attempted raid in Lower Manhattan comes amid an increase in ICE activity in New York City over the past few weeks. On Oct. 21, in a separate raid on Canal Street, nine people from Africa were taken into custody by ICE agents during what DHS called a "targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation…focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods." The raid, which involved more than 50 federal agents, also led to the arrest of five protestors after people reportedly attempted to chase federal agents away. The DHS claimed protestors were blocking vehicles and obstructing law enforcement duties.
In recent weeks, ICE agents have been spotted with greater frequency in immigrant neighborhoods of Corona in Queens, Washington Heights in Manhattan, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
Activists in those neighborhoods have responded to the increased ICE activity by organizing community alert systems, such ashanding out whistlesto be used when agents are seen in the area. The strategies resemble ICE Watch in other cities hit especially hard by Trump's immigration crackdown,such as Chicago, where groups likeProtect Rogers Parkenlist community members to follow and report onICE activity in the area.
'This is an immigrant city'
Saturday's incident is likely to renew tensions between Mamdani and the Trump Administration over immigration before the Mayor-elect has even taken up his post at City Hall.
Mamdani staked out a firm position on how the city would respond to raids after Tom Homan warned that ICE agents would soon "flood the zone" in New York earlier this month. He also signaled a change in how he wanted the NYPD to deal with federal immigration agents operating in the city after reports that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mamdani has announced will keep her position in his administration, was tipped off about the Oct. 21 raid.
"What we will ensure is the NYPD will be delivering public safety, not assisting ICE in their attempts to fulfill the administration's goal of creating the single largest deportation force in American history," Mamdanisaidin an interview posted on Nov. 19.
"This city is also an immigrant city. It's a city that is proud of its immigrant heritage," he said. "And we will protect those New Yorkers."
Mamdani and Trump appeared to avoid major disagreements on the issue during their notoriously friendly Oval Office meeting a few days later.
In that meeting, Mamandi said he and the President spoke about immigration enforcement in New York City.
"We discussed ICE and New York City, and I spoke about how the laws that we have in New York City allow for New York City government to speak to the federal administration for about 170 serious crimes," Mamdani said, standing alongside Trump.
"The concerns that many New Yorkers have are around the enforcement of immigration laws on New Yorkers across the five boroughs, and most recently, we're talking about a mother and her two children, how this has very little to do with what that is," he added.
Trump responded: "What we did is, we discussed crime. More than ICE, per se, we discussed crime. And he doesn't want to see crime, and I don't want to see crime, and I have very little doubt that we're not going to get along on that issue."
Contact usatletters@time.com.
Immigration activists interact with NYPD as they block a garage used by ICE vans during a protest against a purported ICE raid on Canal Str...
