federal plaza protests (2025)

one june afternoon in manhattan, two protests kicked off around federal plaza at the same time, ostensibly with the same goal: protesting the uptick in indiscriminate detainment and deportation of asylum seekers and immigrants, at large. however, as protesters began marching, the crowds and their intentions quickly diverged. a large swathe rallied and chanted around the periphery of lower manhattan, vocalizing their disapproval for the trump administration’s most recent immigration policies. meanwhile in front of 290 federal plaza, a different scene unfolded. nypd and protestors set up shop in parallel, the former with steel barricades and the latter linking arms in a human one. the goal of this protest was clear: to prevent ICE agents from transporting for deportation the immigrants they had been detaining in the federal buildings.

the atmosphere at the federal plaza protest was rapt with anticipation and bursts of intense showdowns between protesters and the police. people researched the names and badge numbers of police officers for their misconduct on the force, often shouting out their findings so others could join in shaming the officer in question. every so often, when they could anticipate that a van would be leaving the plaza parking lot, nypd began corralling the crowd to the sidewalk to prevent protesters from blocking the vans. one of these moments resulted in an intense scuffle and several people on the front lines were violently grabbed by officers, pushed to the ground and cuffed. while some were arrested for interacting with the police in verbal matches before, others were pulled off the line for simply being accessible. a legal observer yelled that an immigration attorney had been arrested, someone else warned that there were potential undercover ICE agents recording protesters’ faces to identify them later. two men filmed and live-streamed the protest for several hours, often shoving their phones in front of people who were unmasked, as streamers reacted in real time with laughing emojis and taunts.

as night fell, officers carted those they had arrested into large police buses that had been circling the blocks, and drove off. more protesters swarmed the corners of the federal buildings, enveloping the officers attempting to keep the exit ramp of the building clear for cars.

in the weeks that followed, more civilians arrived to help potentially detained asylum seekers and immigrants, and notable political figures like brad lander, the city’s comptroller, was arrested and detained by ICE for attempting to use his stature to escort undocumented individuals out of the building.