Brooklyn Metropolis Council Member Justin Brannan speaks at a rally in opposition to ICE’s “gestapo” ways in Manhattan on Could 10, 2025.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
A number of hundred folks rallied in Foley Sq. on Saturday in opposition to what they known as the Trump administration’s “gestapo” ways concentrating on New Jersey elected officers who made an unannounced go to to an ICE facility on Friday that ended with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka being arrested, and a number of other Congress members intimidated by armed guards.
The Could 10 rally at Foley Sq. noticed many activists, together with progressive elected officers in New York Metropolis, decried the incident as an assault on democracy and civil rights in America. Additionally they pressed Metropolis Corridor to take a firmer stand in opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and to do extra to guard the rights of all New Yorkers, no matter immigration standing.
Saturday’s rally was organized by the Working Households Celebration, Make the Street Motion (NY & NJ), New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice and NYIC Motion. Among the many attendees have been two mayoral candidates whom the WFP endorsed within the Democratic major — Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander and Queens Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani — and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
A number of hundred folks rallied in Foley Sq. on Saturday in opposition to what they known as the Trump administration’s “gestapo” ways concentrating on New Jersey elected officers who made an unannounced go to to an ICE facility on Friday that ended with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka being arrested, and a number of other Congress members intimidated by armed guards.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell 
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Nevertheless it was Brooklyn Metropolis Council Member and metropolis Comptroller candidate Justin Brannan who had probably the most pointed feedback of the rally, labeling ICE as “Trump’s gestapo” whereas alleging that Metropolis Corridor and Mayor Eric Adams, by means of his relationship with President Trump, had “sold us out.”
“The ICE cowboys are out there running rampant over our rights,” Brannan stated. “In a moment like this, we need to demand more of our elected officials at every level of government. Local politicians have a responsibility and obligation to stand in the breach between the federal government and our most vulnerable.”
A variety of protesters at Saturday’s rally making the identical comparability between ICE’s ways and that of the gestapo, Hitler’s brutal secret police pressure in Nazi Germany. One signal learn, “ICEstapo illegally arrested Newark Mayor,” whereas a big unfurled banner learn, “Would’ve fought the Nazis? Now’s your chance!”
One protester additionally waved an upside-down American flag — a logo of misery.
One protester on the Could 10 rally in Foley Sq. additionally waved an upside-down American flag — a logo of misery.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Mamdani blasted Mayor Adams for visiting with Trump and taking a cooperative tone with the right-wing Republican on the identical day because the Could 9 incident in New Jersey by which ICE brokers arrested Baraka for allegedly trespassing on property whereas he and three Congress members from the Backyard State made an unannounced go to to Newark’s Delaney Corridor — a privately-owned, ICE-operated detention heart.
Baraka was later launched from the detention heart, however stated he had achieved nothing flawed.
Sienna Fontaine of Make the Street Motion stated the incident demonstrated a necessity for New York Metropolis to take a bolder stance in defending immigrants in the course of the second Trump administration.
“Trump and his billionaires are trying to divide us while they put their hands in our pocket, while they try to dismantle our safety net, while they try to dismantle Medicaid and Medicare and all the things that generations before us have built so that people in this country can live with dignity,” Fontaine stated. “Today is the day that we say we stand together.”
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Lander agreed, saying that it was important for New York’s authorities to not discover itself bullied by Washington.
“We must stand up to this administration,” he stated. “They will do this to every one of us if they could.”
