James is urging the public to document ICE operations through a new online form
Trump’s crackdown on immigration targets big cities, including New York
DHS reports nine arrests, says rioters obstructed law enforcement
By Ted Hesson and David Dee Delgado
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) – New York’s attorney general urged the public on Wednesday to send his office photos, videos and other documentation of federal immigration operations for review, a day after a high-profile raid targeted Manhattan street vendors.
Attorney General Letitia James said her office will review the footage and other information from the operations shared through the “Federal Action Reporting Form,” saying in a statement that “every New Yorker has the right to live free from fear and intimidation.”
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has launched an aggressive crackdown on immigration in major US cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration will send more than 100 federal agents to the city to step up enforcement, citing an unnamed source.
Protesters in the cities used phones to record ICE operations, which critics say used racial profiling and swept up many immigrants without criminal records. An immigration raid on New York’s Canal Street, a prominent shopping area known for bargain prices and knock-off goods, sparked street protests from nearby residents.
When asked to comment on James’ surveillance effort, U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said it “seems like obstruction of justice.”
The new effort to document possible abuses by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and other federal agents is part of a broader backlash by Democrats. U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat representing a Los Angeles district, said Monday that he and other Democrats would launch an online site to track the agency’s operations and urged the public to record ICE activity.
In March, the Trump administration gutted the DHS offices tasked with tracking civil rights abuses as part of the government’s efforts to cut staff.
ICE monitoring efforts by James, a longtime Trump foe, could further inflame political tensions with the White House. James, who filed a civil fraud suit against Trump in 2022, was charged earlier this month with lying on a mortgage application as the Trump administration stepped up its use of government power against his perceived political enemies.
DHS said Tuesday’s operation targeting Canal Street resulted in nine arrests of alleged immigration offenders from Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea, including some who had been arrested in the past. ICE officers and other federal agents had to contend with “violent rioters who attacked and obstructed law enforcement by blocking vehicles,” DHS said.
The raid on Canal Street came after at least two prominent pro-Trump influencers posted videos in recent weeks targeting African immigrants selling goods along the busy thoroughfare. One of the influencers, Savanah Hernandez, said in an Oct. 19 post on X that undocumented African immigrants were running a black market there and called on ICE to visit the area and arrest the sellers.
“I don’t know that ICE officials have seen my post,” Hernandez said in an email. “However, the White House has been very responsive to local reporters using X to share their stories.”
The usually busy street was largely empty of street vendors on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and David Dee Delgado in New York; Editing by Craig Timberg and Diane Craft)
