ICE Agents Raid Canal Street Vendors
Dozens of masked federal agents descended on New York City’s Canal Street on Tuesday afternoon in an immigration raid targeting street vendors. In a statement to The Cut, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security described it as an operation “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods” and said the agents took nine undocumented immigrants into custody. The area has been subject to raids in the past, though they have largely been conducted by local police and involved the seizure of counterfeit goods.
The raid broke out just a couple of days after right-wing media figure Savanah Hernandez posted a video claiming a “huge group of African illegal immigrants” were “operating a black market” on Canal Street. “Perhaps @ICEgov should go check this corner out,” she wrote in the X post on Sunday.
Hundreds of New Yorkers showed up at the scene to protest Tuesday’s immigration sweep, with many of them recording and attempting to chase off the ICE agents. The DHS spokesperson claimed “rioters” shouted “obscenities, became violent and obstructed law-enforcement duties including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement.” Five protesters were arrested, the spokesperson said.
Local officials condemned the aggressive operation in a press conference nearby afterward. Comptroller Brad Lander slammed the federal response, saying “street vendors are not a national security threat,” per Gothamist. Mayor Eric Adams denied any involvement in the raid, and his spokesperson reportedly said he “has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue the American Dream should not be the target of law enforcement.”
In a statement Tuesday evening, Zohran Mamdani called the raid “aggressive and reckless”: “Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop.” Andrew Cuomo also denounced the action, calling it “an abuse of federal power by the Trump administration.”
Related