Anti-ICE protesters swarm Trump Tower in NYC, chant names of crackdown’s victims
Anti-ICE protesters filled the atrium of Trump Tower in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, chanting the names of people who have lost their lives amid the government’s crackdown on immigration.
Starting around 1 p.m., more than 30 protesters set up shop for an hour and a half at President Trump’s Golden Tower, located at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in Midtown. Singing “Abolish the ice!” and “How many more must die?” they held signs with photos of people they said had been killed by federal agents or had died during enforcement or in custody.
“We walked into the atrium of Trump Tower — which is open to the public — and showed photos of people who died while in ICE custody, were murdered by ICE, or were killed while trying to get away from ICE as ICE tried to kidnap them,” said Jamie Bauer, 67, an organizer with Rise and Resist. “And we stood in the atrium and read the names of the people who died. And then after each name we said, ‘How many more must die?’ We sang “Abolish ICE” very little.
“I mean, we didn’t sing for an hour,” Bauer added. “We chanted about five times, ‘Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!’ then each of us made a short statement explaining why we were there.
“There were, I believe, 45 names,” Bauer said of the ICE victims whose names protesters cited.
Security officers from Trump Tower and the NYPD did not move to remove the protesters or arrest them. The demonstrators left on their own, peacefully, after deciding that their action would only last an hour and a half.
The protest comes amid intense tensions across the country, with many demanding an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids or even the outright dismantling of the federal agency.
“The big lie of this term (from Trump) is that ‘ICE goes after the worst of the worst.’ You hear this over and over again,” one protester said during the brief occupation of the atrium. “‘The worst of the worst’ is a lie. When you hear those words, think ‘lie’. That’s Trump’s big lie. And we’re not going to stand for it.
The protest was organized by Rise and Resist NYC.
No arrests were made during the protest, according to police.
