Anti-ICE protesters defiant day after violent clash with NYPD: ‘We’ll do it every single time’

Anti‑ICE protesters vow to keep standing up as NYPD clashes with federal agents in Lower Manhattan

Sunday’s press conference carried a clear message from New York’s Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams: the protests will continue. The city’s leading immigration advocates and local politicians, including councilman Mr. Brad Lander, stood together to denounce federal raids that were carried out without prior notice to the police.

“We do not apologize for standing up,” Williams announced, feeling the word “no apologies” echo across city hall and beyond. An extended pledge followed: “We’ll do it every single time.”

Those words came just a day after the clash on Centre Street, where over 150 demonstrators marched outside an ICE deployment centre and faced a storm of trash and debris when the NYPD stepped in. The police said that “multiple individuals were taken into custody,” but stopped short of quoting the exact figure or naming the charges. Sources confirmed that at least 18 protestors were charged.

For their part, the protestors framed the raid as a “horrifying and idiotic” intrusion. Coalition president and CEO, Murad Awawdeh, wrote to the paper that citizens from “every stripe” had come to prevent families from being separated and lost. He emphasized that the community had stood for hours to defend their neighbors. In that same press briefing, Mr. Lander reminded the crowd that “the people who were protecting and serving New Yorkers were the protesters who showed up.”

Assistant Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who had bared contempt when the federal officers failed to give the NYPD advance notice, confirmed that she had reprimanded the foreign agents for the Saturday melee, during which officers were hit with debris as they tried to safeguard ICE operatives. Tisch, however, confirmed that she would continue to serve under Mayor‑elect Zohran Mamdani, a known critic of the current federal immigration policies.

At least one protestor was stabbed during the fracas, and the scene was described by witnesses as “bloody.” Other footage captured the chaos in a Lower Manhattan parking garage where ICE agents were allegedly preparing for a round‑up. NYC’s role as a sanctuary city means that local law enforcement typically does not cooperate with ICE arrests or deportations—a standing policy at odds with the Trump administration’s national push for raids.

Hands Off NYC, an immigrant‑rights group, made it clear that they will not relent; Hannah Stouts told reporters that every federal incursion would meet “non‑violent community resistance.”

Community members stretched beyond the downtown core, converging on a federal target on Centre Street and a Lower Manhattan parking structure. With more than 150 demonstrators in the streets, it was a significant demonstration in the city’s larger context of anti‑immigration activism. Bystanders saw protests sprawl across Lower Manhattan, causing a last‑minute scramble by police officers.

While the NYPD chief found it hard to describe the sheer scale of the protest, the protests were led by the coalition’s president and other city council members. The rally loudly demanded that the city protect the community from raids. The city’s official spokesperson said that there are no official numbers for those arrested, but at least 18 protesters faced charges.

As the tension continued to rise, the NYPD’s attempt to do its job was graded with supervision, creating a crisis and possible fatal consequences during the protests. Both the city and federal agents officially will no longer get involved in enacting the same policy and order. Much of the residents continue to protest, meaning the protests today will further them in their quest for fiscal or political gain or actions that would keep them out of lives that have been impacted yet again.

In future updates, the city officials continue to update the groups that will act against the defiant attempts that Banta will be incrementally gathered to save theme that seasonends for many to show that turn. In the same days, local