Make the Road New York protests on 3rd Avenue outside of Senator Schumer’s office, November 14, 2024. (Credit: Pauline Gallon)
As President Donald Trump’s immigration orders unfold, some New Yorkers are pushing back.
And while one of Trump’s main campaign promises was to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion,” there’s been an uptick in both demonstrations supporting immigrants around the city, and backing of new legislation that would protect their rights from enforcement of federal immigration laws. Several major immigrant advocacy groups in New York, for example, are rallying around the New York for All Act, a state bill introduced by Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Karines Reyes.
After his inauguration in January, Trump ordered the first deportation flights of his second presidency to begin, with “criminal” immigrants being handcuffed and forced into military planes. Trump continued to implement his plan by giving new instructions to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), such as a new quota of 75 arrests per day for each ICE field office in the country, as Deputy Chief of staff Stephen Miller confirmed on CNN on Jan. 28.
New Yorkers are rallying against Trump’s measures, while immigrant advocacy organizations are preparing to protect the undocumented population for the next four years.
On Feb. 5, hundreds of New Yorkers gathered at City Hall Park as a part of a national wave of protests to denounce Trump’s recent immigration-related policies and Elon Musk’s role in the White House’s administration. Among other issues, protesters often quoted Trump’s mass deportation plan and the recent ICE raids in the city and criticized the targeting of minorities and assault on human rights.
Members of Make the Road New York held a vigil in Albany outside Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office on Feb. 11 for their annual Democracy Day action. The immigrant-led organization is urging Hochul to protect immigrant communities and stand up to the Trump administration. .
“Faced with threats from the federal government, dozens of members rallied & met with state legislators to uplift how New York State can protect its immigrant communities from this administration,” the organization declared on its Instagram.
New York has an undocumented population of 835,000, according to the Migration Policy Institute, making the city a prime target of Trump’s immigration plan. As a sanctuary city, New York City officials only cooperate with immigration authorities on a limited number of cases. Trump’s “border tsar,” Tom Homan, threatened in November to cut federal funding to states that would not cooperate with the Trump administration and change course on this issue.
Mayor Eric Adams, who was invited to Trump’s inauguration, and met with Trump in Florida a few days earlier, has long showed his discontent over the migrant crisis and its handling by the Biden administration. His relationship with President Joe Biden became more and more strained over the years, causing him to declare during a press conference in April 2023 that “the national government has turned its back on New York City”.
Although New York’s sanctuary city status remains, Adams has signaled an interest in working with Trump on the migrant crisis. The mayor alone does not have the power to revoke the status, which is built on a package of local laws maintained and strengthened over the years, but his influence on city policies remains a threat to immigrant rights. Following a meeting with Homan in December, Adams declared “his goal is the same goal I have. We cannot allow dangerous individuals to commit repeated violent acts of violence in our cities across America.”
Advocacy groups like Make the Road and the New York Immigration Coalition have been organizing to protect the immigrant population on the legal front and are now pinning their hopes on the New York for All Act.
The Act, nicknamed NY4All, would prohibit New York’s state and local government agencies, including police and sheriffs, from communicating with ICE, disclosing sensitive information, and/or diverting personnel or other resources to further federal immigration enforcement.
Brooklyn Councilmember Alexa Avilés, who chairs the Committee on Immigration in the City Council, believes the next four years will be frightening for immigrant communities, and hopes that politicians who helped build protective policies during Trump’s first term will keep supporting the migrant population.
“Trump will make it more difficult to fund crucial programs to ensure the wellbeing of all New Yorkers,” Avilés wrote in an email. “Every advocate will have to work around the clock to protect resources for migrant New Yorkers.”
Gora Diagne, secretary general of the Association of Senegalese in America (ASA) said that all immigrants are “scared” right now.
“We’ve heard disturbing speeches during the campaign, but I’m hopeful that he won’t be able to put all his policies into place,” Diagne said.
Located in Harlem, home to a large Senegalese community, the association provides legal help to asylum seekers from West African countries. The ASA estimates that it has helped over 4500 people in the past two years. Diagne said most of these migrants have a temporary work permit. He worries that under Trump, many of these people will be deported.
“Trump has a legal arsenal, and to him, immigrants are trash,” he said.
Immigrant Social Services NYC, an organization that aims at improving the conditions of immigrants in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, has been less concerned by Trump’s threats as this particular population is not being targeted.
“Of course there’s fear, but Trump’s plan doesn’t affect us as much as others,” said Angela Li, a member of the organization that deals with community outreach. “Our people have no risk of getting deported.”
The members of the association are, however, anticipating a potential new “Muslim ban” according to Li, which would affect the Muslim immigrants they work with. This would make traveling or reuniting with their families more dangerous, or even impossible.
“We’ve been doing the work, and will continue doing the work,” Li said.
About the author(s)
Pauline Gallon is a French reporter and Graduate student at Columbia Journalism School covering politics, social issues, and culture.