{"id":324227,"date":"2026-08-18T18:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/324227\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:44:22","slug":"an-abuse-of-power-elected-officials-and-community-groups-rally-against-reported-surge-in-ice-raids-in-queens-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/324227\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An abuse of power\u2019: Elected officials and community groups rally against reported surge in ICE raids in Queens \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of Black and Latino elected officials and community leaders gathered in East Elmhurst<\/a> Monday evening to rally against what they described as a surge in ICE activity in the surrounding area in recent weeks and launch a week of bilingual \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d pop-ups.<\/p>\n

The rally, organized by Assemblymember Larinda Hooks, took place on Aug. 17 at Barclay Triangle in East Elmhurst, a neighborhood which Hooks said is home to both a civil rights legacy and generations of immigrant families. She said federal immigration authorities have ramped up enforcement in the neighborhood across the last month.<\/p>\n

Hooks was joined by several elected officials for the rally, including Assembly Members Catalina Cruz, Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas, Alicia Hyndman and Clyde Vanel as well as Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry. A number of community organizations, including Make the Road NY<\/a>, the New York Immigration Coalition, the NAACP, Las Do\u00f1as and Hands Off NYC also joined the rally.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

Hooks charged that ICE activity dramatically increased in the area in July, with 14 pick-ups reported along Astoria Boulevard and Northern Boulevard across the month compared to just two in June.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s rally comes one week after a number of residents and community groups gathered at Corona Plaza on Aug. 10 to protest against a reported uptick in immigration enforcement in the area. Organizers at that protest said armed federal agents have taken someone into custody in the area nearly every day in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Attendees at the Aug. 17 rally accused ICE of targeting individuals with no criminal record and claimed that the federal government had targeted East Elmhurst and surrounding neighborhoods because they boast a significant immigrant population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re taking anybody,\u201d Hooks said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just criminals\u2026 It\u2019s people who are working for a living, who pay their taxes, who have never been touched by the justice system. This is not enforcement. This is cruelty and this is an abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendees called on local residents to be aware of their rights when they encounter ICE agents to keep their neighbors safe, emphasizing that the local community can help protect its immigrant neighbors. They said the rally aimed to inform immigrant residents that \u201cthey are not alone\u201d as well as encouraging local residents to stand up to ICE.<\/p>\n

Several speakers said they joined Monday\u2019s rally to demand that ICE be removed from their communities and New York City.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want ICE out of our neighborhoods,\u201d Hooks said. \u201cICE away from our schools, ICE away from our children.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The rally also aimed to highlight the solidarity between Black and Latino communities in the neighborhood, communities Cruz said had been historically pitted against one another.
\n\"AssemblyAssembly Member Catalina Cruz. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historically black neighborhood and the Republican Party has historically tried to divide immigrants and black communities,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to continue to try and divide us, but we\u2019re not going to let them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hooks, similarly, accused the federal government of targeting working-class black and brown neighborhoods but said the community would continue to stand united in the face of ICE raids.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack and brown neighborhoods is where they figured nobody would make noise, but they figured wrong. We are here, and we are making noise, and we\u2019re going to continue to make noise, and we\u2019re going to continue to stand up,\u201d Hooks said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas, meanwhile, called on the state legislature to pass the New York for All Act, which would prevent local law enforcement from working with ICE and other federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

She said the state has made significant progress to combat ICE, noting that the state legislature has passed the MELT Act barring ICE agents from wearing masks as well as approving legislation preventing ICE agents from entering sensitive locations such as schools or shelters without a warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE is being lawless,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas said. \u201cThey are not following the law. They are violating the mask regulations. They are entering spaces (that they shouldn\u2019t).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

ICE has not yet responded to a request for comment.
\n\"PhotoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud\n<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas and Cruz were two of 16 Queens Democrats to sign onto a letter last month calling on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to join their calls to abolish ICE.<\/p>\n

Hooks did not sign onto the letter and said after Monday\u2019s rally that she would have supported a letter addressed to all Democrats in Congress instead of just two individuals.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all in this fight together. Not one Democrat can stop this. So I\u2019m not targeting two people,\u201d Hooks said. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to send a letter, we should send a letter to all of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Hooks believes that it is possible to remove ICE from New York City without abolishing the agency, adding that it is imperative to pass measures preventing local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everyone stops helping them, I think they would know that they can\u2019t do nothing in this state, and they will go look for somebody else.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Other attendees at the rally spoke of how the local immigrant community is living in fear amid an escalation of immigration raids in the area.\n<\/p>\n

Tony Alarc\u00f3n, the interim executive director of immigrant advocacy non-profit Las Do\u00f1as, said local residents are \u201cafraid to go out.\u201d He alleged that an immigrant man was detained outside a laundromat near 85th Street and Northern Boulevard last week as he waited for his clothes.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s wife later visited the laundromat to search for him and found his clothes abandoned in a washing machine, Alarc\u00f3n added. CCTV footage allegedly showed the man drinking a soda outside the laundromat when he was approached and apprehended by several agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about that for a moment: you go to do your laundry. You sit outside, drink a soda while you wait, and suddenly you\u2019re gone,\u201d Alarc\u00f3n said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas accused ICE of carrying out \u201cpredatory behavior\u201d in the local community.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are stepping up their efforts. They are surrounding people. They are kidnapping our neighbors without warrants, and we say no. We say hands off New York,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ICE has not yet responded to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

Hooks, meanwhile, will be hosting a round of bilingual Know Your Rights pop-ups throughout the 35th Assembly District over the next week to help prepare local residents for potential encounters with federal immigration authorities. Monday\u2019s rally concluded with a door-to-door canvass aiming to spread awareness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of Black and Latino elected officials and community leaders gathered in East Elmhurst Monday evening to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[25652,33947,122102,25653,47737,2035,9497,25661,122103,9,24,63,122104,122,124,123,18411],"class_list":["post-324227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-alicia-hyndman","tag-assembly-member-jessica-gonzu00e1lez-rojas","tag-barclay-triangle","tag-catalina-cruz","tag-east-elmhurst","tag-ice","tag-ice-raids","tag-larinda-hooks","tag-make-the-road-ny","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyic","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-shanel-thomas-henry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324227","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=324227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}