City Council Member Christopher Marte and other elected officials spent Saturday morning going door-to-door in the Lower East Side, handing out rights pamphlets to business owners after locals reported spotting ICE agents in the neighborhood.
The outreach followed reports that several ICE agents were seen Thursday around 2:45 p.m. at Broome and Eldridge streets, where witnesses said they took photos before entering a coffee shop and trying to access the back of the business. A barista asked them to leave, and they complied.
“Luckily the barista did the right thing, she stopped talking to them and asked them to leave, kindly, and they left,” Marte told reporters. “But you know, that’s what we need to tell people to do. It could have gone horribly bad if someone didn’t know that they can talk back to them and tell them that they’re not supposed to be there.”
Marte joined Assembly Member Grace Lee and Congress Member Dan Goldman, along with volunteers, for the Saturday canvassing effort. They distributed pamphlets in English and Spanish explaining immigrant workers’ rights and employers’ legal ability to deny ICE access to their businesses.
“We decided that we need to take action and make sure that we’re providing information to all the small business owners, to the employees so that they know their rights and they can protect themselves,” Lee said. “We’ve seen everything that’s happening in Minneapolis and how ICE is terrorizing communities. To know that they are starting to build up an operation on the Lower East Side is terrifying.”
Volunteers gathered at Allen and Rivington streets before splitting into groups to cover different routes through the neighborhood. The elected officials visited pizzerias and restaurants, meeting with workers interested in learning how to legally turn away ICE agents.
The enforcement activity comes during a period of massive weekly protests in New York and unrest nationwide over the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, which have led to fatal shootings including those of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. While New York has not seen the large-scale ICE operations that Minneapolis has experienced, Goldman said he expects escalation.
“My reaction is that they [ICE] better get themselves under control before they start coming into New York City,” Goldman said. “We will not accept this kind of lawlessness, and we will make sure that they are following the law and the Constitution and doing their job, and that they are focusing on those who are convicted criminals and should be deported and leaving those who are seeking lawful pathways to this country for a better life alone.”
