New York’s opposition to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only continued to grow last weekend, as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Manhattan for a national strike.
“What we have witnessed happening across communities, across America, under this administration — the Trump administration — is truly an atrocity,” said Congressmember Yvette Clarke, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, at a state of the district event in Flatbush, Brooklyn on January 29. “It is a crime in every sense of the word. Day after day, our neighbors have been forced to view a neverending stream of kidnapping, torture, and indeed, even murder.”
Many protesters in the streets on January 30 were angry over what is being called the “state-sanctioned” shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota. Their deaths are added to others who have lost their lives at the hands of ICE agents in the past year, including Keith Porter in California and Silvero Villegas Gonzalez in Illinois.
On January 29, the U.S. Senate voted to block an appropriations bill that would give ICE roughly $10 billion in funding, but passed several spending bills later, sending them to the House. Clarke had said her colleagues in the House are also determined to hold the line on ICE funding, but called it a “battle.” The block had led to a partial government shutdown, but the House voted on February 3 to pass the bill, which President Trump signed.
The arrests of several Black independent journalists, including Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, by federal agents have intensified the national outcry against the recent immigration enforcement measures. The journalists were detained supposedly in connection with a protest they were covering at a St. Paul church on January 18. Both have been released, but their arrests marked the Trump administration’s “escalating effort and actions to criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement,” said the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in an open letter it released January 30.
At the state level, members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, & Asian (BPHA) Legislative Caucus rallied in Albany for immigration protections and anti-ICE bills. Many legislators have taken a multifaceted approach, introducing pieces of state legislation in tandem that work to tackle issues that are affecting immigrant communities. These efforts include bills that unmask ICE and law enforcement officers on duty or make it easier to defend constitutionally protected civil rights violated by ICE in court.
Assemblymember Brian Cunningham sponsors Assembly Bill A9589, which bars federal immigration officers from entering hospitals or carrying out arrests on people receiving care, employed, or otherwise present at a hospital throughout the state. Cunningham, who is of Jamaican background, said that his office often works with Caribbean immigrants in the district.
“No question I represent two of the largest hospitals in Brooklyn, Downstate and Kings County. Both are safety net hospitals. Both are hospitals that a lot of immigrant communities come to because of lack of healthcare or just accessibility,” said Cunningham. “As immigrants are coming to hospitals, they shouldn’t feel threatened.”
Cunningham said that states have the ability and responsibility to respond rapidly in their jurisdictions when the federal government does not act.
“Whether it’s the millions of dollars in capital, and expense money to nonprofits in that area, or restoring funding for basic services, or whether it’s a capital investment in this district, I think all those things tell a unique story of what is happening in Albany,” said Cunningham. “Sometimes the distraction, the media in terms of TV, is a lot of the federal government — the drama and theatrics that happen in Washington — but their municipalities and state-level officials, not just here in New York, but across the country, who are really standing up at this time when we need the government to stand up. We’re not seeing that kind of resistance and pushback on the federal level, but we are seeing that state by state.”
(Credit: Ariama C. Long) Credit: Ariama C. Long
Locally, organizations and nonprofits are focused on growing grassroots resistance campaigns, walkouts, mass demonstrations, sit-ins, and civilian rapid response teams in real time to protect perceived immigrants targeted by federal officers.
The Hands Off NYC coalition said they saw a large jump in the number of first-timers joining their Know Your Rights training this past weekend. Their sessions emphasized how to combat authoritarianism, adapt to constantly changing immigration laws, know their fundamental rights, and what to do as a bystander or witness in encounters with officers. Their training also includes how to identify not just ICE agents, but other federal agencies cooperating with them, such as Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP); or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
“It’s unacceptable that ICE continues to murder people,” said City Council Speaker Julie Menin at a Hands Off training at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on Saturday, Jan. 31.
A lot of the outrage and shock has pushed many New Yorkers to be on high alert for appearances of ICE throughout the five boroughs, constantly posting to social media about warnings and confrontations with assumed agents.
Meanwhile, New York City’s council members are making some headway with anti-ICE legislation. They recently voted to re-enact the Safer Sanctuary Act (Int. 1412), which would bar federal immigration authorities from maintaining offices in jails or anywhere the Department of Correction (DOC) has jurisdiction. This was one of the bills vetoed by former Mayor Eric Adams on December 31, 2025, just before he left office.