Letitia James Takes Action On ICE After Outrage Over Arrests

New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking the public for videos of ICE activity in New York, a day after masked federal agents arrested people in downtown Manhattan.

The arrests, which appeared to target an area known for street vendors in Chinatown, drew immediate protests from New Yorkers. At least two people who were briefly detained and then released told NBC New York that they were U.S. citizens.

“Every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation,” James said in a press release on Wednesday, linking to a portal to submit reports of federal law enforcement activity.

“If you witnessed and documented ICE activity yesterday, I urge you to share that footage with my office. We are committed to reviewing these reports and assessing any violations of law. No one should be subject to unlawful questioning, detention, or intimidation.”

Responding to the release, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in her own statement, “This sure looks like obstruction of justice.”

“If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, we will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin added.

James earlier this month was indicted on allegations of bank fraud, shortly after President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to target her and other political enemies of the president. James led the investigation into, and eventual civil lawsuit against Trump for financial fraud. James called her indictment “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”

The arrests Tuesday were an aggressive show-of-force from the Trump administration. More than 50 federal agents were involved in the operation, The New York Times reported. The New York City outlet Hell Gate recognized one agent involved in the operation as the same man who was briefly relieved of duties last month after shoving a woman to the ground at 26 Federal Plaza.

DHS claimed nine “illegal aliens” were ultimately arrested. Other people were reportedly arrested during the protest of angry New Yorkers that swelled up in response to the operation.

The arrests took place around Canal Street, not far from immigration court buildings in Manhattan, where hundreds of people have been arrested this year while attending scheduled hearings and check-ins. The street is known for street vendors who sell counterfeit ― but not necessarily low-quality ― imitations of designer bags and other items. The Times quoted one witness who said some of the men arrested were not selling goods at all, but simply sitting on a street corner.

“It’s just straight to the back of a van if you’re African on Canal,” another witness told the paper.

Semafor media editor Max Tani pointed out that the same strip of street vendors has been targeted by right-wing influencers in recent months: Nick Shirley posted a video last month about “dangerous migrant scammers in NYC.” And Savanah Hernandez tagged ICE’s Twitter account in her own recent post on “a huge group of African illegal migrants” who she said were “operating a black market on the corner of Broadway and Canal St in New York City.”

“Perhaps @ICEgov should go check this corner out,” Hernandez tweeted on Sunday.

Two days later, ICE did.

A press account for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration highlighted Hernandez’s Twitter presence after the arrests Tuesday, noting past posts in which she denigrated LGBTQ people and amplified the lie that Haitian immigrants were eating domestic pets.

“This bigot @sav_says_ posts a video about Canal Street and less than 48 hours later, Trump sends in ICE,” the governor’s press account wrote. “Who this administration chooses to uplift and who they choose to attack says it all.”

One man who was briefly detained during the wave of arrests yelled “I’m from Brooklyn!” as ICE agents surrounded him.

Another man, Mor Ndiaye, told the Times that agents pushed him to the ground and arrested him, wounding his knee. They released him after he said he’d been in the country for 20 years and gave them identification.

Separately from the New York attorney general’s portal, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee previewed an “ICE tracker” to gather information on immigration enforcement activity. That tracker is not yet live, but community groups and news outlets have been collecting, and responding to, ICE activity for months.