The Hudson River Park Trust, a publicly-owned corporation overseen by New York State and the city, will end its longstanding contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid growing concerns about the Trump administration’s heavy-handed tactics.
As far back as 2004, ICE has used the Hudson River Park Trust’s waterfront parking lot at Pier 40 to stash several dozen vehicles. But when the latest five-year contract runs out in June, the Trust will give ICE the boot.
“The Trust is currently in the last year of a five-year parking contract that commenced during the previous federal administration and does not intend to renew the contract,” said Shal Ramaswamy, a spokesperson for the Hudson River Park Trust, adding the trust didn’t intend to enter into any new ICE contracts. The number of parking spots currently being used by ICE was redacted from the request, and the Trust spokesperson Ramaswamy declined to say how many parking spots ICE was currently using.
“The contract is confined to the provision of parking spaces, and the Trust has no engagement related to enforcement,” she said.
Hell Gate first reported the end of ICE’s contract after the publication contacted the Trust following a map published by Sludge that showed local ICE contracts, including one with the Trust.
Its most recent contract with ICE, which went into effect in July 2021 and expires at the end of June 2026, is for $150,000 a year for “secure parking spaces for DHS/ICE/ERO law enforcement officers,” according to a copy of the contract obtained through a Freedom of Information Request by THE CITY. The number of parking spots currently being used by ICE was redacted from the request, and the Trust declined to say how many parking spots ICE was currently using.
Manhattan Borough President called on the Trust to break its contract immediately following Hellgate’s report.
“I understand the contract is set to expire in June, but every day matters when you consider that the city and the state are in effect colluding in family separation policies with the federal government,” he said on X. “The contract must end now.”
The Hudson River Park Trust’s contract with ICE stretches back for more than two decades and came under scrutiny during President Donald Trump’s first term.
In 2018, Sludge reported that ICE’s contract at the time was worth $426,000 and covered 35 parking spaces for vehicles. A City Council bill at the time would have banned public entities from contracting with ICE, but the legislation never moved forward. The bill was reintroduced in 2022 and again stalled.
Some of the vehicles stored at the Chelsea parking garage appear to be the same passenger vans with caged enclosures that ICE uses to move immigrants to and from 26 Federal Plaza, the central processing location for arrests made in New York City.
ICE’s white vans became a target of ire last spring as ICE arrests ramped up in New York City. Protesters attempted to block them transporting people arrested at Varick Street immigration court and at 26 Federal Plaza on several occasions.
On an afternoon last fall, reporters for THE CITY observed five white passenger vans with Maryland plates, tinted windows and caged enclosures around the back seats. The vans also had boxes of metal handcuffs visible through windows. One such van arrived during the course of the afternoon, and a driver with a holstered gun got out and left the garage.
ICE’s use of parking lots have recently become a flashpoint in other cities facing dramatic federal crackdowns. Last fall in Chicago, ICE used public parking lots as staging areas for raids, prompting Mayor Brandon Johnson to pen an executive order barring their use.
But anger towards ICE has built in recent weeks, as agents have flooded Minnesota’s Twin Cities. An agent involved in the huge federal sweep there shot and killed American citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis, with subsequent protests met by a highly-militarized crackdown on demonstrators.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently said on ABC’s The View he was in favor of abolishing ICE.
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