AOC to ICE: "New York Does Not Mess Around"
The congresswoman representing the Bronx and Queens tells New Yorkers to "BLOW THE WHISTLE" on immigration agents in her city.
WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced Immigration and Customs Enforcement over a sweeping operation on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown, calling the agency “criminal” and urging New Yorkers to “blow the whistle” on masked officers she accused of abusing and disappearing people, including U.S. citizens, during confrontations that flared a day earlier.
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The remarks followed an afternoon enforcement surge Tuesday in which federal agents detained vendors, drew fast-growing crowds and sparked clashes near vehicles as bystanders and protesters pressed in, with shoving, pepper-spray warnings and additional arrests reported by an Associated Press account published by a local affiliate.
“New York City does not mess around,” Ocasio-Cortez said, escalating her long-running critique of ICE while encouraging residents to make it “as hard as possible” for the agency to “break the law and disrupt our way of life.” In the message, she condemned the use of masks by agents and framed the confrontation as a community defense moment: “When you see them, BLOW THE WHISTLE,” she said, asserting that ICE has targeted both noncitizens and citizens and vowing that New Yorkers would not allow intimidation or disappearances under the cover of federal enforcement.
The raid spanned blocks known for sidewalk vending as teams from ICE, Border Patrol and other federal components moved detainees toward nearby federal facilities, according to the AP account, which described a chaotic rush-hour scene and a volatile crowd response that persisted as vehicles attempted to leave the corridor. As of Wednesday afternoon, authorities had not provided a final arrest tally, leaving basic questions—how many detained, on what charges, and where they were taken—unanswered amid intensifying public scrutiny of the operation and its tactics.
Ocasio-Cortez’s posture on ICE has been shaped by years of oversight fights and human-rights claims routed through official channels. In 2020, she joined progressive House colleagues seeking international scrutiny of credible allegations involving DHS components, underscoring her view that federal immigration enforcement has breached fundamental rights and requires external accountability beyond domestic oversight cycles.
That push, recorded in formal congressional correspondence, maps onto a broader pattern of hearings and docketed disputes over detention, removals and rulemaking that have defined the polarized debate over DHS authorities since the Trump years and through subsequent administrations.
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Viewed through that record, Wednesday’s broadside signaled more than a one-off response to a high-profile raid: it previewed renewed oversight demands from House Democrats and allied offices focused on limiting or reshaping ICE operations in dense urban corridors, especially where enforcement methods—including masked agents and street-level sweeps—collide with civil-liberties concerns long cataloged in congressional materials.
With Chinatown residents and vendors still sorting through the fallout from Tuesday’s sweep, the stage is set for a fresh round of document requests, hearings and public pressure aimed at clarifying what happened on Canal Street and what, if anything, will change the next time federal agents roll in at rush hour.
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Not super fan of AOC but everyday I am beginning to have a lot of respect for her sense of integrity. They are leading us to resist these atrocities that the IDIOT PRESIDENT KING DONALD, keeps throwing at us.
Blowing the whistle is not enough. Sitting in on some UN panels about medical malpractice of detainees is not enough (medical conditions in ICE detention did not improve as a result). AOC needs to start supporting (or even better, INTRODUCING) legislation that gives states more power to arrest and prosecute the federal agents responsible for illegally abducting law-abiding immigrants. But because the Democratic party is inextricably linked to the ever-expanding detention system, I doubt this is the course of action she'll take.