NEW YORK – At least five federal agencies were involved in a massive immigration raid on Canal Street in Manhattan on Tuesday. The huge, heavily armored federal law enforcement presence took what observers described as a mix of migrants and protesters off the streets in what both activists and local elected officials are calling an ominous escalation.
“The coordinated effort of having federal agents en masse in New York City should worry everyone,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D) told TPM in an interview on Wednesday morning.
Multiple demonstrators who said they witnessed the raid told TPM four protesters were taken by federal law enforcement along with several people who seem to have been targeted for immigration enforcement. TPM reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not provide a total number of migrants or demonstrators who were arrested.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin provided a statement to TPM detailing the number of agencies involved in the sweep, which included the Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division. She also confirmed at least one person who she described as a “rioter” was arrested during the operation for “assault on a federal officer.”
“ICE and its federal partners, including FBI, DEA, ATF, IRS-CI and CBP conducted a targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street in New York City, focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods,” McLaughlin said in an email. “During this law enforcement operation, rioters who were shouting obscenities, became violent and obstructed law enforcement duties including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement. Already one rioter has been arrested for assault on a federal officer.”
McLaughlin did not provide further information on the total number of migrants or alleged “rioters” who were detained or arrested, but said more details would be provided “as soon as they become available.”
Williams, who is the city’s second-ranking elected official, said he believed there were “around nine arrests” made by federal law enforcement during the sweep. However, he said even elected officials had not been able to obtain specific information about the total number of migrants and demonstrators who were detained or the reasons for their arrests. He described this situation as alarming and “authoritarian.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about what happened with the federal government. … I spoke to a congressman, I spoke to [Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)], I spoke to the police commissioner, and everybody’s trying to figure out what information they can get,” Williams said, adding, “I don’t know how many people were actually detained versus let go. I heard it was a mix of vendors and just New Yorkers who were there.”
Williams described the lack of clarity as disturbing.
“Part of an authoritarian regime is this kind of obscurity and not providing information to anyone outside of the regime,” he said.
Gillibrand’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her efforts to obtain information.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 21: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams talks to an NYPD officer as people protest against an earlier raid by federal agents outside of 26 Federal Plaza on October 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)
Local outlets including The City and Hell Gate documented the raid, which featured armored vehicles and masked agents.
Fallout continued for hours after agents swarmed lower Manhattan. TPM was on the scene as protesters subsequently gathered outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in nearby Foley Square, which is about six blocks from Canal Street. At points, Williams and other elected officials including Comptroller Brad Lander and multiple members of the City Council joined them. The crowds stayed well into the night to provide jail support for people, preparing food and other resources to provide to those who were released. Officers with the New York City Police Department made what Williams and demonstrators who spoke to TPM described as multiple arrests during the demonstration in Foley Square. One protester provided TPM with footage showing one person being taken in cuffs. An NYPD spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
The tense scenes echo those that have taken place in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon where police and federal agencies have engaged in a violent crackdown against people protesting ICE and President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda. Protesters have also been detained by federal law enforcement in these locales, and Trump has promised a heavy-handed response to resistance in cities, particularly those that are led by his political opponents.
In Foley Square, many demonstrators were masked and those who spoke to TPM declined to give their full names, citing fear of federal crackdowns. According to several who said they had been present on Canal Street, over a dozen migrants were detained and four demonstrators were taken by members of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigations unit.
“I think there were four main people and they were all detained by HSI,” one woman told TPM.
A second woman piped in and agreed that it was “HSI specifically” that detained the protesters.
“They were so fucked. It was so fucked,” she said. “People were just doing what any normal person would do if they saw masked people taking people off the street.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 21: NYPD Strategic Response Group officers block protesters at the scene of an earlier raid by federal agents outside of 26 Federal Plaza on October 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)
Canal Street, one of the main thoroughfares in the Chinatown neighborhood, has long been home to a mix of licensed street vendors and unlicensed ones who sell knockoff goods. Local law enforcement regularly engages in crackdowns on the area’s bootleg scene.
For his part, Williams said he believed there was “no excuse” for the level of force deployed in the sweep. He also noted it does not appear in line with Trump’s insistence that dangerous criminals are the focus of his deportation push.
“The fact that you needed a military-style — it looked like a tank — and armed agents to deal with street vendors, it’s not the hardened criminals we were told,” Williams said. “This is about fear, and causing chaos, and harm. … It’s not about public safety and it’s about causing fear and chaos.”
The vast majority of New York’s voters and elected officials are Democrats who are opposed to Trump. While Williams said the city has “some systems trying to prevent the worst,” he described the chaos that unfolded on Tuesday as foreshadowing of what’s to come amid Trump’s promise of further crackdowns on blue cities.
“I think, sadly, it is about how long we can prolong the inevitable,” Williams said, adding, “I think this simple-minded president is, at some point, going to flood our streets with federal agents and that should concern everybody.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.