{"id":140572,"date":"2026-02-20T23:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140572\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:39:13","slug":"west-african-migrants-nabbed-in-canal-street-raid-freed-as-judge-slams-ice-for-blatantly-unlawful-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140572\/","title":{"rendered":"West African migrants nabbed in Canal Street raid freed as judge slams ICE for ‘blatantly unlawful’ arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least three West African migrants detained in ICE\u2019s bid <\/a>to crack down on knockoff vendors on Canal Street last fall have been ordered freed \u2014 with one judge calling the busts \u201cblatantly unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manhattan and New Jersey judges ordered the feds to release Mamadou Ndoye, Sergigne Diop and Abdou Tall after determining that the ICE agents made illegal arrests in Chinatown, court records show.<\/p>\n

New Jersey District Judge Karen Williams slammed ICE\u2019s Oct. 21 apprehension of Diop \u2014 a 19-year-old who has a type of immigration status meant to provide a path to citizenship for neglected children and teens \u2014 as \u201cblatantly unlawful from the start\u201d in a Dec. 29 ruling.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ndoye, 45, a Mali native who has lived in the US for decades, was ordered released on Feb. 5 by Manhattan District Judge Vernon Broderick, court records show. The feds had a final order of removal for Ndoye, but failed to explain in court how they identified him or why he was arrested, the judge said.<\/p>\n

ICE agents swarmed the Canal Street area where knockoffs are known to be sold in an October raid. Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n

Sergigne Diop Department Of Homeland Security<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mere fact that an individual may have a final order of removal does not mean that he
or she can be detained without any due process,\u201d Broderick wrote.<\/p>\n

A week later, however, Ndoye was detained again by ICE after what he was told would be a routine check-in to adjust his GPS monitor, Gothamist reported.<\/a> He\u2019s now being held at an immigration detention facility in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Tall was arrested by ICE in a similar Canal Street dragnet in November, court records show. Manhattan District Judge Arun Subramanian ordered him freed in a two-paragraph ruling<\/a> on Dec. 23, finding similarly that his arrest was unlawful, court papers said.<\/p>\n

At least four of the other seven alleged vendors nabbed by ICE in October are still locked up, and are being held at immigration jails in New Jersey and Louisiana, the agency\u2019s online detainee locator shows.<\/p>\n

The dramatic October raids sparked impromptu protests from locals and criticism from then Mayor Eric Adams. <\/p>\n

Nine alleged street vendors, not pictured here, were arrested by ICE in October, and another was nabbed a month later. LP Media for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cOur administration has been clear that undocumented New Yorkers trying to pursue their American Dreams should not be the target of law enforcement, and resources should instead be focused on violent criminals,\u201d Adams said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n

The NYPD noted at the time that it was not involved in the fed sweep.<\/p>\n

Department of Homeland Security officials touted the arrests in a press release where they announced that they were \u201cMAKING NEW YORK\u2019S CANAL STREET SAFE AGAIN.\u201d <\/p>\n

DHS also defended the busts in spite of the recent court losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite activist judges, President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem will continue fighting for the arrest, detention, and removal of criminal illegal aliens who have no right to terrorize our communities,\u201d DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Gothamist in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least three West African migrants detained in ICE\u2019s bid to crack down on knockoff vendors on Canal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9098,2035,2301,277,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-140572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chinatown","9":"tag-ice","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-manhattan-federal-court","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}