When I arrived in downtown New York in the late afternoon, NYPD officers vastly outnumbered the protesters. But within an hour, the crowd swelled to around 500, loudly chanting “ICE has no business here” and “NYPD to KKK.”

It was day two of the city’s anti-ICE protests, which began in Foley Square, where ICE agents had reportedly detained people — including children — attending immigration check-ins at a Lower Manhattan courthouse. The atmosphere was febrile, with protesters waving Mexican, Colombian and Palestinian flags. Many wore masks, and several had keffiyehs wrapped around their faces. The majority were young and white.

Unlike in LA, a rumoured agreement between Mayor Eric Adams and Trump meant that there was no National Guard presence in New York — at least for now. Yet the evening before had resulted in 82 arrests and became a mayoral talking point. Keen to demonstrate their anti-Trump credentials, all candidates criticised the heavy-handed response of the authorities. Frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, for example, accused Adams of “cooperating with ICE” while socialist contender Zohran Mamdani said New Yorkers need a mayor who will “stand up and fight back.”

No candidate appeared at last night’s protests, but there was no shortage of drama. The first arrest happened at around 9pm after a man reached beyond the police barriers and was dragged into the street. Moments later, people in the crowd rushed toward the entrance of the federal immigration building. “An ICE van is leaving!” someone shouted, pointing at a white vehicle with agents inside as it pulled away. The chant that followed — “Intifada, people’s war!” — surged through the crowd, quickly joined by cries of “No cops, no KKK, no fascist USA!”

Amid the signs reading “No human is illegal”, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds us” and “Free Palestine, Fuck Trump, Fuck ICE, Fuck Netanyahu: it’s all connected”, I spoke to various protesters about why they were here. Carmen, a middle-aged woman from Peru, told me: “If we tolerate this, then we tolerate more and more abuse. I don’t care if they arrest me” while another, 19-year-old Rosina, told me: “I want to represent my brothers that got deported to Columbia. My homie had a son, he had a son, he’s separated from his child.”

Anna, a young woman from New Jersey, was more direct, pointing to the building which houses ICE: “What these guys are doing is shameful”. In Jersey, which houses a major ICE facility, people she knew are “scared to go outside speaking Spanish” in case someone called the authorities on them.

Shortly after, there was another arrest. A young person was dragged out into the street by police after reaching over the barrier. Then Nick Shirley, a YouTuber with over half a million subscribers, started provoking protesters and filming them, claiming that he wanted to “get to know people”. Eventually, the police moved him away.

As the night wore on, the atmosphere shifted. The crowd had thinned by 10pm, replaced by influencers filming the emptying streets. Two young men shouted about deportations and the Holocaust, pushing against the police line. Nearby, another man watched quietly and said: “You got no choice but to be out here.”

The mood had grown heavy. While the NYPD stood between protesters and the immigration building, it was clear they weren’t the ultimate focus of the crowd’s anger. It was ICE. Still, the crowd remained defiant. As Rosina put it: “The best I can do is fight for [my deported friend]. You spend a long time just watching, but at some point you have no choice left but to act.”