The Department of Homeland Security is ramping up ICE raids in some of Queens’ most diverse neighborhoods. Here’s how the surge is affecting immigrant communities.
BY ROMAN BROSZKOWSKI & COLE SINANIAN
news@queensledger.com
Federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been spotted around Queens in unprecedented numbers in recent weeks, bringing fear and uncertainty to some of the city’s most immigrant-dense neighborhoods.
Speaking at a Manhattan press conference on September 1st, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin touted the success of so-called “Operation Rotten Apple,” a immigrant enforcement action lasting from July 27 to August 29 that saw the detention of 2,197 undocumented immigrants across New York State — most of whom lack criminal convictions — marking a major surge in immigration enforcement that some Queens residents say have hurt local businesses and left immigrant neighbors afraid to go outside.
Queens elected officials, meanwhile, have slammed DHS’ actions and challenged Mullins’ narrative that ICE detainees are violent criminals.
“ICE has made it clear that their goal is not to keep people safe, but to tear families apart,” wrote Jackson Heights City councilmember Shekar Krishnan in a statement to the Queens Ledger. “Our community is stronger than their fear tactics.”
“The statistics show that the so-called ‘criminal aliens’ do not exist,” said State Assemblymember and former undocumented immigrant Catalina Cruz at a rally in Corona Plaza on August 10.
“We are not going anywhere,” she continued. “We are at the forefront of the war against Trump.”
An August 27 analysis of deportation data by The New York Times found that just 4% of those arrested by ICE nationwide in July had a violent criminal conviction, despite Mullins’ claims that the agency was targeting “the worst of the worst.”
The Queens Ledger spent an afternoon speaking to business owners, workers, and passersby in Jackson Heights and Woodside, where locals say recent ICE activity has kept people indoors and hurt local businesses. All requested anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities.
Under President Trump’s immigration agenda —which set a target this summer of 2,000 daily immigration arrests nationwide — ICE detentions have soared in New York City and elsewhere. Nationwide, ICE arrests soared to a record-breaking 49,000 in July, according to data from the Deportation Data Project, while New York City saw 804 ICE arrests that month. In Queens, meanwhile, a total of 2,153 ICE-arrests have occurred since the start of Trump’s second term.
The effects of this surge have been especially noticeable in Queen’s immigrant enclaves, which are among the most diverse urban areas in the world. In recent weeks, ICE raids have increasingly targeted neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, where some 57% of the population is foreign-born, and Woodside, whose bustling Filipino community has earned it the nickname “Little Manila.”
A worker at the Western Union near Triangle 90 Park in Jackson Heights said the past year has seen foot traffic on Roosevelt Avenue drop by almost 50 percent as fewer people have come out to shop. According to her, any news about ICE — including out-of-state raids — prompts people to stay home. Immigrant residents have become hypervigilant of their surroundings, she said, limiting their shopping to only essential errands.
On August 12, a 6-year-old girl who went to Jackson Heights’ P.S. 89Q was detained by ICE at a Manhattan court date with her mother and older brother and sent to a Texas detention center. More recently, NYC ICE Watch reported ICE vehicles parked at the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights on the morning of September 4.
“Usually this street [was] always packed like almost every day,” the worker said. “[Now] people go from work straight home.”
A few blocks away on 37th Avenue, another business owner said that ICE’s presence has pushed people to come out much earlier or much later in the day, hurting businesses that haven’t been able to adjust their hours. He said his business had conducted some Know Your Rights trainings to make people aware of their rights, but that he wondered if the city could not do more.
By 37th Avenue and 69th Street in Woodside, one convenience store owner also noted that business had gotten significantly worse over the last three weeks. Pointing at General Hart playground across the street, he said that usually it would be full, but that people were hiding and not coming out in public as much.
This playground has been a recent hotspot of ICE activity. On Saturday, August 29th, eyewitnesses reported agents in unmarked vehicles swarming the playground, who then approached and detained a man sitting on a nearby bench near without showing a warrant — an incident later confirmed by local City councilmember Julie Won. The store owner described a pervasive feeling that immigration enforcement was watching constantly. An immigrant himself, he said he had never seen something like this before.
At a nearby fast-food restaurant, several workers said that they had witnessed an ICE raid at the park a week prior. They described it as an “ambush” and said that around 10 am last Sunday, five black cars had converged on the intersection from multiple directions as local day-laborers and residents had scattered. The cars then stopped at a local gas station, they said, and several locals had confronted the ICE agents, demanding they leave the neighborhood. One worker said that after the incident, he didn’t see another person outside for several hours and that in general foot traffic had significantly decreased. Like in Jackson Heights, the business had also been canvassed by people handing out know-your-rights pamphlets, which the worker had then distributed to customers.
But despite the fear ICE has brought to Queens neighborhoods, local community groups have responded with equal tenacity, providing much-needed support to vulnerable neighbors. On a tree-lined Jackson Heights Avenue on August 30, hundreds of families speaking equal-parts Spanish, Bangla, Chinese, and English gathered for the New York Immigrant Coalition’s (NYIC) annual “Keys to the City” street fair, an event that provided free meals, school supplies and know-your-rights materials to more than 600 people. Though the event is aimed at supporting lower-income families at the start of the new school year, NYIC organizers said they also took the opportunity to canvas the surrounding community, making sure neighbors knew their rights and had a plan if ICE knocked on their door.
“We have one-pagers on what to do if you see immigration enforcement, family preparedness materials,” said Caterina Cundari, Senior Manager of Community Programming, at the August 30 event. “It details how families can prepare if one of the parents, for example, are arrested to make sure things like finances are in order.”
“People feel safer in community,” Cundari continued. “Even if there is an increase in ICE enforcement, they still need to get to school, and we just want to make sure that they know their rights.”
Queens residents looking to report ICE sightings can call the city’s official ICE hotline at 229-304-8720. On Saturday, September 12, New York City ICE Watch, Hands Off NYC, and several Queens-based organizations will host a fundraising event for families impacted by ICE raids from 12-5pm at First Presbyterian Church of Forest Hills.
