Protesters block ICE from leaving garage to conduct Canal St. sweep as NYPD makes arrests

Immigrant advocates stopped a large-scale federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency operation near Canal St. Saturday by blocking the entrance to a Chinatown garage where the masked agents had gathered, temporarily preventing them from leaving, officials and advocates said.

ICE agents needed to call in the NYPD, who arrested protesters after giving multiple warnings to stop blocking the sidewalk and the garage entrance.

Once the caravan of ICE agents moved out of the garage,  NYPD officers were recorded pepper-spraying demonstrators as they tried to chase the departing motorcade, throwing debris and garbage from a nearby dumpster at their vehicles. The departing ICE agents drove to New Jersey to regroup, a law enforcement source told The News.

Several protesters were taken into custody after they ignored multiple warnings to back away from the building, the NYPD said. Some were charged with disorderly conduct for jumping the barricades and throwing garbage, and dragging planters and city garbage cans into the street. The exact numbers and charges were not immediately disclosed Saturday afternoon. At least 10 people were seen handcuffed and escorted away by cops as the protest raged on.

“I saw the NYPD pepper-spray, mace people,” protester Jay Walker, 58, told the Daily News. “(The protesters) were trying to impede the ICE trucks from going on.”

Another protester, Mia Kurzer, said she was knocked down to the ground during the ensuing chaos.

“I was trying to block ICE vehicles from arresting my neighbors,” Kurzer, 22, said.

The scheduled ICE operation was believed to be similar to one that occurred on Canal St. a month ago when agents, in a surprise raid, swooped in to target illegal street vendors. The protesters on Saturday managed to locate ICE’s rallying point — the garage — and quickly alerted fellow protesters to join them, sources said.

Monica Klein, a spokesperson for Mayor-elect Mamdani, condemned the planned ICE action.

“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 3 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.”

Because of New York’s sanctuary city law, the NYPD is barred from helping the feds with civil immigration enforcement, but cops can be called in if a crime or violation is being committed, such as protesters blocking sidewalks or stopping traffic.

Ricky Patel, Department of Homeland Security special agent in charge of the New York field office, called Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and apologized over the way the situation unfolded, a source with knowledge of the conversation said.

“She told him that what happened today is unacceptable,” the source said. “ICE has tried this twice with these shows of force that are intended to cause chaos and disorder on our streets, but all they are doing is putting the public, federal agents and her cops in harm’s way. She warned them that this needs to stop because, if it happens again, someone will get hurt and it will be entirely on them.”

In a statement, Emily Covington, an ICE spokesperson, said the federal agents were confronted by “hundreds of violent rioters.”

“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,” she said. “NYPD was called and responded to hundreds of violent rioters, which resulted in the arrest of multiple agitators.

“When individuals broadcast the location of ICE, they are putting a target on the backs of officers. Our law enforcement is facing a 1,150% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats as they make lawful arrests of criminal illegal aliens.”

“We are grateful for the NYPD officers that responded to these violent agitators and stopped the lawlessness that ensued. We will never apologize for enforcing the law and removing criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members and terrorists, from our communities. We won’t let violent rioters slow us down, and anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The confrontation started just before noon as a large crowd dropped traffic cones and stood in front of the entrance to the Centre St. garage near Howard St., about a block from Canal St. Videos on news sites and social media show masked agents going back inside the garage as the protesters showed up. Some of them watched the gathering crowd from a second-floor landing.

Within an hour, dozens of protesters had converged on the garage. ICE agents called in the NYPD to set up barricades and push the protesters blocking the sidewalk and garage exit back so they could leave.

“Is this what you want, tearing America apart?” one protester demanded to know from an ICE agent.

Other protesters linked arms in front of the garage, chanting, “ICE out of New York!” as others pounded on the plastic barricades.

NYPD officials said they received a call for a disorderly group on Centre St., blocking egress from a building.

Cops made multiple arrests as they tried to move the protesters away from the garage entrance, the NYPD confirmed. According to a police source, the cops who pepper-sprayed protesters were from the Strategic Response Group. However, some of the SRG officers themselves were also seen staggering along and rubbing their eyes in pain after being pepper-sprayed.

Some protesters learned a procession of ICE agents were leaving the garage from another entrance and ran over there, dragging large planters and garbage cans into the middle of the street.

“One of the tactics that people use is that they take the garbage cans and push them into the street to try to impede the traffic,” Walker said. “When that happens, the garbage falls out.”

Confrontations like this between ICE agents and protesters in other cities have resulted in stepped-up federal law enforcement activity amid the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

City Hall declined comment.

Last month’s raid on Canal Street also provoked a grassroots response. As dozens of ICE agents detained a total of nine allegedly undocumented vendors at the Oct. 21 enforcement action, a crowd of people gathered to protest, then followed the agents down to 26 Federal Plaza — ICE’s Manhattan processing and detention center — where a larger protest took place.

Earlier this month, the Daily News reported that NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch received advance notice from the Trump administration last month that ICE agents were hours later going to conduct an immigration enforcement raid along Canal St. In response, sources say, Tisch directed NYPD officers to stay away from the ICE agents as they arrested vendors along the busy shopping street.