Immigration raids surprise New York City residents

Phone calls from concerned tenants in an apartment complex woke up the Bronx building’s manager at around 6 a.m. Tuesday.

“They were telling me that ICE was there,” the building manager, who declined to be identified, told NBC News.

New York was among the latest cities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids, grabbing the attention of residents and business owners who were surprised by the early morning activity. The raids in several parts of New York City are part of the Trump administration’s heightened push to boost deportations and make them very visible, targeting major cities and publicizing the actions.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on social media that she was present when officers from ICE and other law enforcement agencies arrested at least one undocumented person in the apartment building in the Highbridge section of the Bronx.

NBC News spoke with seven workers and business owners in the area late Tuesday morning as New York City police officers remained at the scene.

Most of them were surprised, and they said that while crime has long been a problem in the neighborhood, immigration enforcement actions are rare.

“I think it’s OK if they need to arrest somebody because they committed a crime, but I worry that with ICE, they may also arrest others that haven’t done anything bad,” a 28-year-old business owner, who asked that his name not be used out of fear, said in Spanish.

According to data from the Furman Center at New York University, which researches housing and urban policies, the serious crime rate in Highbridge is higher than the citywide figure.

Even though city and state laws prevent New York police from getting involved in civil immigration enforcement, the police department is part of the Homeland Security Investigations task force, which cracks down on violations of federal criminal law.

As part of the task force, police officers were present for the “criminal enforcement action” early Tuesday. They said the undocumented person who was arrested was wanted on suspicion of serious crimes, including kidnapping, assault and burglary.

Mayor Eric Adams said the immigration enforcement operation was led by the Department of Homeland Security and supported by other federal agencies, as well as the NYPD.

“We will not hesitate to partner with federal authorities to bring violent criminals to justice — just as we have done for years,” Adams said in a statement. “Our commitment to protecting our city’s law-abiding residents, both citizens and immigrants, remains unwavering.” 

The news reverberated across the city, which is home to a large number of immigrants, including newly arrived migrants.

Many recent migrants are taking temporary shelter at the Roosevelt Hotel, in midtown Manhattan near Times Square.

Isabel Miranda, 39, a Colombian mother of two children who has been taking shelter at the hotel for a few weeks, said her youngest daughter, who’s 3 years old, has told her she’s fearful of the police.

“It makes you desperate; you go out, and they look at us as if we were delinquents who came here to destroy the country, and that’s not the case,” Miranda said in her native Spanish. “We contribute, too, because we work hard and we do the tough work.”

Asked whether she worries about deportations, Miranda said, “The only thing I ask for is that my children remain safe, because I can’t go back to Colombia.”

Recent numbers shared by the Trump administration show that about half of those whom ICE has arrested recently don’t have criminal records.

Ihan Forero, an 8-year-old boy from Colombia who has been in the United States for six months, was coming back from school with his mother. Asked what he thought of President Donald Trump as he stood outside the Roosevelt Hotel, he responded: “Fear. … He has a cold heart.”

Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, a nonprofit organization advocating for immigrant rights in the state, condemned the enforcement actions as “a publicity blitz” from the Department of Homeland Security, releasing photos and videos of Noem wearing body armor as she presided over the multiagency operation in the Bronx.

“No matter how the Trump administration spins this enforcement, it is not about public safety — it is about instilling fear in our immigrant communities. At this time, it does not appear that mass raids have been conducted in New York City,” Awawdeh said in a statement.