Harvest in New York. Politicians clashed with the police. “Open the door finally!”
September 18 in the afternoon. A handful of New York politicians runs the Broadway pavement, cheering and clapping. When their political colleagues see them, they also cheer and clap – they are free again. Marcela Mitaynes from New York State Assembly [izby niższej organu ustawodawczego stanu Nowy Jork] He is no longer wanting to talk to journalists – he points to his two colleagues who will gladly answer questions and look at his mobile phone.
They know that the action that has just ended will go to the first pages of newspapers. An hour and a half earlier, 11 democrats, mostly MPs to the State Congregation, and partly members of the New York senate, appeared in front of the Javits federal building in the center of Manhattan. The 41-story skyscraper has FBI offices, employees of social insurance companies and various security agencies and a New York immigration court.
On the tenth floor there is a full camp for immigrants. The conditions that prevail in it are catastrophic – This is how the federal court ruled this week.
“Unlawful”
People sleep on concrete, have limited access to sanitary installations and to lawyers who could help them. The judges ordered to immediately improve living conditions.
American politicians went to the center on Thursday. Without warning, they drove the elevator to the tenth floor and tried to balance the door to the center, but met the guardian resistance. So they began to bang their fists at the door and scream, ignoring the police calls to remain calm.
“We just want to make sure everything is fine,” said one of the politicians.
– Open the door finally! He shouted another.
– We are with you! The politician shouted in Spanish through the closed door to the detainees.
American officials demanding access to a detection center in an immigration court in the federal building Jacob K. Javits, New York, September 18, 2025.Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press/East News/East News
The noise suggested that the door was barricaded. – It's unlawful! One of them shouted, pointing to the need to provide escape routes. He added that they would not leave until they were allowed. After these words, they sat on the floor, around the poster with the inscription “against ICE” [Urząd Celno-Imigracyjny USA] They began to sing songs (“somebody is wholesale my brother”) and raise combat shouts (“Come for one, you will face all of us”, “Say it loudly, say it clearly, immigrants are welcome here”).
This behavior caused the reaction of the policemen.
– If you don't stop screaming, you'll all be arrested. In ten minutes, one of them said. Half an hour passed, the officers left the elevator with the clamping bands, cut 11 politicians and took them from the tenth floor.
Tightening the screw
From the beginning it was clear that it would end like that. In recent months, politicians have repeatedly submitted applications for the possibility of visiting the facility – but to no avail. Each time they got the answer that they had no right. The arrests are the latest tool of the authorities towards Democrats opposing Donald Trump's migration policy.
For example, Brad Lander – a city auditor and former candidate for the mayor of New York – was arrested in June in the same building, only two floors higher, when he tried to protect the immigrant, which Ice wanted to arrest. In May, a governor after a quarrel with officers was arrested in front of the detection center for immigrants in the neighboring state of New Jersey. Now there has been another escalation in Manhattan. However, this is not a surprise.
Already 50 days after Donald Trump took office, ICE detained about 33,000 immigrants, which is about the same as in all of 2024. In March, the US president spoke before Congress about “the largest deportation operation in America's history”. He said that “millions of criminal foreigners would be sent back where they arrived.” Shortly afterwards, he significantly increased ICE resources and staff.
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Also in a traditionally democratic state of New York, the number of detention has doubled – this is the result of the latest data from the end of June. At that time there were 2365. In the following weeks, ICE was to intensify the activities even more.
A special feature is that in about half of cases, officers are not looking for people who want to arrest – they wait for them to come to the skyscraper at Broadway (and the adjacent building) for hearings regarding their asylum applications. In this building, ICE occupies two floors under courtrooms and arrests. At 9.00, when migrants appear at their dates of hearings, ICE agents – mostly masked and without any identification marks – go to the corridors with letters containing the names and photos of people who are to track.
They wait for courtrooms, often visible to the migrants they contain, because the door is open. When foreigners leave the room, they often get an officer on the road, grabs them by the arm and pulls them to the staircase. In case of doubt, he asks about the name and surname. The resistance is pointless. The arrests last just a few seconds. A handful of photographers and video journalists are held in the light of the headlights who have been documenting these events for months.
“Hunting” on migrants
You can't say with certainty who Ice has in the crosshairs. To fulfill his promise of mass deportations, Trump announced that all people without legal status in the country would be expelled. The authorities issued a deportation order of about 1.4 million foreigners. According to Pew Research Center estimates Recently, about 14 million people lived in the United States without documents confirming the right to stay.
Tall -ranking government officials have repeatedly emphasized that they focus on criminals. Almost every day, ICE publishes photos of alleged criminals and the officers detained in social media.
Policemen detaining Protestants opposing the actions of the Immigration and Customs Office, New York, September 18, 2025.Spencer Platt/Getty AFP/East News/East News
However, people whose asylum procedure has not yet been completed in the New York skyscraper. Journalists “Die Welt” repeatedly saw how people leaving the courtroom were arrested, even though they received the date of the next hearing just a few minutes earlier. It is not clear why they found themselves in the ICE target.
The fact is that not everyone goes to the detection center on the tenth floor. Thanks to publicly available government databases, you can see that detainees are often transferred to a prisoner in Texas or California in a very short time or taken from the country. In many cases, migrants, taking into account their complicated situation, agree to return to their homeland. For a quick – or any – release from custody in most cases, there is nothing to count on.
A special stir in New York is evoked by photos from court corridors published almost every day, which show how mothers or fathers are separated from their families. On Thursday, ICE officers detained a man who Leaving the courtroom, he kept his daughter in his arms. He managed to pass the child to his wife.
The city of migrants – still?
While many Americans support a hard position in terms of migration, these events caused sharp criticism in other parts of society and the political scene. The fact that foreigners are treated so severely in the liberal, cosmopolitan New York, raises many of its inhabitants.
On Wednesday, several dozen people gathered around the federal building in protest against ICE activities. On Thursday, a small group of demonstrators – during politicians on the tenth floor – blocked access to the building. The police detained over 70 people who were then escorted to police buses. The slogan chanted loudly: “Ice, get out of New York!”
Dozens of protesters against the Immigration and Customs Office (ICE) in New York, September 18, 2025.Spencer Platt/Getty AFP/East News/East News
Lander financial controller was released as the first, after about half an hour. He ran to the main entrance and waited there for his companions. The officers told them that they would be charged with a violation of home mirts.
Lander himself defended this action. In an interview with the editors of “Die Welt” he said that he had already witnessed many court hearings on the spot and saw about 50 arrests. There is no understanding for events in the Javits building. People come to court to explain the status of asylum application to explain that their homeland is threatened with persecution.
– [Myślą, że] There is a rule of law here. And then – in complete contradiction with this – masked agents of ICE and, without even an arrest warrant, they take people – says Lander. Earlier, sitting in front of the detentive center, he said that New York is “the greatest city of migrants in the world.” “We must keep this tradition,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the US National Security Department, however, perceives these actions differently. -Another day, another political activist who tries to get his 15 minutes of fame by means of a PR grip, at risk of officers and detainees-she said.
