Thousands of New Yorkers gathered in Union Square, just blocks from the University Center, on Friday, Jan. 23 and Saturday, Jan. 24 to protest the Trump administration’s escalating anti-immigrant crackdown.

The nationwide protests this weekend began in Minnesota as an “economic blackout” on Friday, meant to disrupt workplaces, schools, and businesses. The Twin Cities are the epicenter of the latest massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. 

Cities across the country are organizing to stand in solidarity, spurred by increasingly expansive and violent ICE actions, like the fatal shootings of two Minneapolis residents by federal immigration agents this month.

“New York’s a city of immigrants. Over a third of us are foreign born, and these are my neighbors, who are just trying to not be kidnapped in broad daylight,” Isaac Anderson, an attendee on Friday and New York City resident of 13 years, said.

On Jan. 7, 37-year-old Renee Good, a writer and poet, was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. On Jan. 24, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents. Both were U.S. citizens legally acting as observers during actions by federal immigration agents.

Some protestors this weekend held signs and banners reading “Abolish ICE” and “ICE out of New York.” Others held signs honoring Good and Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old detained by ICE agents in Minnesota on Jan 20.

The protests come after the deaths of 32 people while in ICE custody in 2025, and as the number of people in ICE detention centers reached a record high in December. As of Jan. 8, about 43% of detainees arrested by ICE agents have no criminal record or pending charges of any kind. The second Trump administration has arrested over 352,000 people and also deported about 352,000, according to reports from the Guardian.

The New School community has been directly affected. Heury Gomez, a night porter at The New School, was arrested by ICE agents on Aug. 5, 2025. He was released on Nov. 22, 2025.

Friday’s protest was organized by groups including People’s Forum, 50501 Movement, and ANSWER Coalition. The protest began with a rally at Union Square Park, where speakers addressed the crowd about the importance of showing solidarity and taking action against ICE’s harm in New York and the country as a whole. 

Members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) stood on the outskirts of the park waiting beside squad cars and unmarked vehicles, as surveillance drones circled overhead. 

The crowd quickly grew during the rally, and at around 5 p.m., began marching down 14th Street. The streets were packed, causing taxis, buses, and cyclists to stop.

“All of our struggles are connected, right?” an organizer with the party for Socialism and Liberation, attending Friday’s protest, said. “We’re seeing ICE raids across [New York City] right now, against our people, against the people in our community who make the city run.” 

Friday’s protest also condemned corporate support of ICE.

Daniela Hernandez, an attendee on Friday, held a sign that read “Hell’s waiting room,” and featured images of numerous CEOs: Alex Karp of Palantir Technologies, which uses health records to guide ICE raids; Ted Decker of Home Depot, which has failed to protect day-laborers as the store’s parking lots become ICE targets; and Daniel Ek of Spotify, which ran recruitment ads for ICE until late 2025.

“There’s too many to name,” Hernandez said. “I know I probably could have filled the whole sign up with number of CEOs [and] elected officials that have either been complicit or actively participated in all of this.”

The crowd walked down W. 23rd Street to stand before a wall of NYPD in front of a Home Depot. Friday’s march ended in Madison Square Park.

On Saturday, following news of Pretti’s killing by federal agents, about a thousand protestors gathered at Union Square Park at 4 p.m. 

Like Good’s killing, a video of Pretti’s killing has been widely circulated online. The footage shows a group of federal immigration officers pushing Pretti to the ground, beating him with fists and handguns, before shooting him at least ten times. Pretti is the third U.S. citizen to be killed by immigration agents in the last month, following Good and Keith Porter, a Los Angeles man who was killed by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve. 

The march took a similar route to Friday’s and passed the Home Depot and Palantir Technologies offices. 

After the march ended again at Madison Square Park, a group of protestors marched down Broadway until they reached 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, the site of a notorious federal immigration court and detention center. 

The protest continued outside 26 Federal Plaza into the evening, despite rapidly dropping temperatures.

New York City’s population is 38% foreign born. In an interview, newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani, an immigrant himself, explained that he would “exhaust every option to protect New Yorkers,” and prevent a sprawling ICE operation from coming to New York.

New York City also has many immigrant support organizations: Brookyn Defenders, an organization that protects the rights of immigrants in NYC by defending against ICE detention and deportation; Make the Road New York, which provides legal and survival services; and Immigrant Defense Project, which provides legal advice. 

While New York City has not yet seen ICE operations on the same scale as other cities, there have been 3,212 arrests and 1,832 deportations reported, according to the most recent available data by ICE from mid-October. The numbers are expected to be much higher now. 

ICE is also planning on purchasing a warehouse in Chester, New York, according to a public notice published on Jan 8. ICE has not said if the 35.9-acre property just 60 miles north of New York City will be used as a detention facility, but the notice said there will be significant changes, including “fence line modifications” and the construction of a guard building. 

Rep. Pat Ryan, of New York’s 18th Congressional District, has circulated a petition in opposition to ICE’s purchase of the property, which currently has over 10,000 signatures. 
Another protest in New York City is planned for Tuesday, Jan. 27. Organized by the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and @nycicewatch on Instagram, the protest is set to take place in Foley Square at 5:30 pm.