Dozens of demonstrators were arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday evening after occupying the lobby of a TriBeCa hotel where, they said, federal immigration agents were staying while carrying out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
More than 100 people crammed into the hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn on Sixth Avenue near Canal Street, at about 6 p.m., condemning the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency with chants and anti-ICE slogans on their black T-shirts.
The protesters also directed their ire at Hilton for, they claimed, providing lodging to ICE agents. A hotel worker checking in guests and guests themselves seemed confused by the protest. It could not immediately be determined whether ICE agents were staying at the hotel.
The Manhattan protest followed a similar action on Sunday in Minneapolis, where the killings by federal agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti this month have further inflamed residents angry about the crackdown and the methods employed to enforce it.
The Minneapolis protest, which began as a peaceful, if noisy, demonstration outside a Home2Suites by Hilton hotel, grew heated after some people in the crowd began to vandalize the building and federal agents responded with tear gas.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, declined to respond to a request for comment about protesters targeting hotels where they believe ICE agents were staying. Inquiries sent to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s press office and Hilton were not immediately returned.
Just after 6:35 p.m. Tuesday, police officers entered the Hilton lobby and warned that those who did not leave faced arrest. “They want you guys out of the hotel,” one officer said. Many people soon left, and the police forced reporters out as well. About 50 people remained.
The Rev. Micah Bucey, the senior minister at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, was among those who stayed put. He said he was unfazed by the prospect of being arrested.
“I know that my God is telling me that I have to be here,” he said. “I am in solidarity with all of the people in Minneapolis. All of the people in Chicago, all of the people across the country, especially with my immigrant neighbors.”
Some of the protesters who left the lobby lingered in the cold outside, where they were joined by others who had walked over from a separate anti-ICE rally outside a federal building in Foley Square.
At about 7:30 p.m., officers with the Police Department’s Strategic Response Group began to make arrests, lifting protesters off the lobby floor, binding their hands with zip ties and escorting them through a back door to a waiting bus.
By 8 p.m., the lobby had been cleared, and some stray protesters outside the hotel continued to chant “Stop helping ICE” against the steady beat of a drum and the sound of bagpipes. Others had walked up Sixth Avenue to Washington Square Park, where the crowd dispersed.
The police said there had been “multiple” arrests but that neither a specific number nor the charges they faced were immediately available.
Kaja Andric contributed reporting.
Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk.
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