‘Hands Off’: City Lawmakers Push Back Against Federal Agents in NYC

“This has only weakened our local communities and economy by disrupting our neighborhoods and their small business partners. All for politics. We don’t need any more of this disruption,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at City Hall Thursday.

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On Thursday morning, 11 City Council members and religious leaders rallied to condemn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) use of military-style tactics to arrest street vendors in Chinatown.

“We began in unison to send a clear message to the Trump administration: hands off. Stop threatening our public safety and our economy,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said during a press conference in City Hall’s rotunda.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said 14 people were arrested in Tuesday’s sweep in Lower Manhattan, in which ICE agents—and an armored vehicle—descended upon a group of vendors selling bags and other goods on the sidewalk. Nine of those arrested were migrant men, while the others were demonstrators.

New Yorkers reacted immediately to the operation by taking to the streets, staging protests Tuesday night and the following day. Public condemnation from local leaders also hasn’t stopped, and the state’s Attorney General Letitia James asked New Yorkers to send photos or videos of Tuesday’s raid for her office to review, in order to assess whether any laws were broken.

The incident follows months of federal arrests at the city’s main immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, and after the Trump administration sent National Guard troops into several other major cities this fall, including Chicago and Los Angeles.

During a Fox News interview Wednesday, ICE Director Todd Lyons warned that he plans to increase the number of arrests carried out in the city. Federal authorities called the Canal Street sweep an “intelligence-driven” operation, focused on the alleged sale of counterfeit goods in the tourist-heavy area.

But local advocates say it was a racially profiled operation against African migrants. The Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group, said that at least five street vendors were arrested on Tuesday. 

The sweep occurred just days after right-wing influencer Savanah Hernandez visited and posted a video of herself on Canal Street, tagging ICE’s account. “Hopefully ICE makes a trip over that way and starts mass deporting the illegals breaking the law,” she replied to a comment on social media site X. 

Canal Street has long been a hot spot for vending and a tourist location for shoppers of discounted imitation items. Since Mayor Eric Adams took office, the NYPD has ramped up enforcement against street vendors around the city, as City Limits previously reported. 

Referring to the arrests of vendors in the area, Speaker Adams said that these actions do not make the city safer. “In fact, it makes us all less safe. Trump’s ICE has repeatedly violated constitutional rights, unlawfully disappearing members of our communities and separating families,” she said. 

“This has only weakened our local communities and economy by disrupting our neighborhoods and their small business partners. All for politics. We don’t need any more of this disruption,” she added.

A few weeks before the incident, city lawmakers drafted legislation to update existing sanctuary city laws that have been in place for decades.

Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán introduced a bill that would make ICE’s exclusion from Rikers Island law, after Mayor Eric Adams’ administration sought to allow the federal immigration agency back at the island jail complex. The City Council ultimately stopped the move by suing and winning in court. Additionally, Cabán wants to expand the number of federal agencies with which municipal agencies cannot share information.

Tuesday’s operation in Chinatown included multiple federal agencies, including ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

City Council Immigration Committee Chair Alexa Avilés said that it was unlikely that these reforms would pass this year, as the Council expects Mayor Adams to veto them. Therefore, it would be up to the next mayor to deal with them.

Mayoral candidates weigh in

The final debate with the three candidates for mayor, which aired Wednesday night, began with questions about Tuesday’s sweep on Canal Street. Each candidate criticized the deployment of federal agents in their own way.

Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor running as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary, said that the city doesn’t “need ICE to do quality of life crimes. We don’t need them to worry about illegal vendors. That’s a basic policing function for NYPD.”

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate and front-runner in the race, criticized the Adams administration and called for an “end [to] the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government,” He also urged the Council to pass street vending reform bills aimed at protecting sellers from criminal enforcement.

Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, said that federal agents shouldn’t have stepped in, saying that “this is a matter that should have been left up to the NYPD.”

On Thursday, Avilés acknowledged that the city is limited in its ability to stop unexpected ICE raids, but said the state could step up and offer more protection.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes recently introduced a bill to stop other states from sending their National Guard troops into New York without local permission. He said officials need to be “as creative as possible and do anything we can to protect ourselves in this moment.”

Gounardes said he’s frustrated and disappointed that state legislators have yet to pass the “New York for All” bill, which would limit cooperation between state and local government agencies and ICE. 

Outside the five boroughs, the number of local law enforcement agencies across the state that have struck partnerships with federal immigration officials has multiplied this year, as City Limits previously reported.

“I just think it’s only going to get worse. What we saw happen on Canal Street is just the beginning,” Gounardes said. “And so we need to be doing everything, I mean, everything we can to really protect New Yorkers and fight back.”

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