Public Advocate Jumaane Williams joined a May 22 rally against ICE enforcement in the Norwood area, where multiple recent arrests have occurred.
About two dozen residents and community advocates shouted, “ICE out of the Bronx!” and “Hands off the Bronx!” outside the Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center and expressed concern about the many Black and brown New Yorkers, regardless of citizenship status, who have been abruptly detained off the streets.
It included representatives from Hands Off NYC, Mothers on the Move, Bend the Arc and other social justice groups, as well as Bronx residents worried about what’s happening on their blocks.
At least four have recently been arrested by ICE in the Norwood neighborhood, according to Hands Off NYC. Those arrested included 19-year-old Jeury Concepcion, who required stitches after federal agents tackled him to the ground at Gun Hill Road and Hull Avenue, only to later realize they had arrested the wrong man and drop him off at a park.
The overall number of ICE arrests in the city appears to be rapidly increasing, according to the Mamdani administration.
ICE arrested 5,567 individuals in the New York City area between Jan. 2025 and March 2026, a 71% increase compared to the same amount of days at the end of the Adams administration, according to a new audit released by the mayor’s office.
“New York City is home to immigrants from every corner of the world, and no one should live in fear because of their status,” Mamdani said in a statement. “This audit was a critical step towards strengthening compliance with our local laws and reinforcing New York City’s protections for immigrant communities.”
At the rally, residents spoke about the fear of knowing that ICE is detaining people in the immediate neighborhood.
Norwood resident Daniel Hayeem said that among the thousands arrested was his neighbor Angel, a local street vendor and Dominican migrant who had been living in New York for two years. Angel now faces a court case that could result in his deportation, Hayeem said.
“The fact that this man, who only worked hard and only smiled at everyone, and never committed any crime, should be kidnapped in broad daylight by federal agents and placed in a prison facility, is shameful and unconscionable,” Hayeem said. “It cannot be a crime to be a migrant or an immigrant in the streets of New York City, the most globalized city in the world.”
During Williams’ remarks, he said he was arrested in 2018 while preventing a deportation, and since then, even with Democrats in power, the country’s immigration system has remained broken.
Today, Williams said racism and xenophobia are acceptable under President Trump, with disproportionate consequences for Black and brown people. U.S. immigration is now controlled by “people who very clearly believe in white supremacy, Nazism and the whitening of the country,” he said.
Williams said the vast majority of people arrested by ICE on the New York City streets had no criminal record. “This has nothing do with our public safety” but rather is an intimidation tactic, he said.
In response, he encouraged residents to look out for each other and “become eyes and ears and talk about what’s happening.”
“The Bronx too often is ignored, and we have to make sure we have eyes on the places that are ignored, because that is often where the worst things happen.”
Williams also took a long-range perspective, saying that history will show who stood up against injustice.
“In 20, 30 years, everybody’s gonna make excuses as to why they supported the s–t stain in the White House,” he said. “Let’s get ICE out of New York. Let’s get [Make America Great Again] packed up and sent home. And let’s make this country one that is actually for all people.”
Diya Basu-Sen of Sapna NYC, which serves immigrant South Asian communities in the Bronx, said her organization is busy doing street outreach and canvassing to businesses, especially in the Bangla neighborhoods of Parkchester.
The team has distributed flyers and whistles and showed business owners how to put up private property signs “so that ICE can’t enter with impunity,” Basu-Sen said.
Still, too many individuals and business owners remain unaware of their rights when it comes to ICE enforcement, she said. “All of us need to be out on the streets.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
