New York city bracing for ICE surge
Enforcement efforts lead to tense confrontations
By: Eduardo Cuevas
USA Today
NEW YORK - A surge of federal immigration enforcement officers to the nation's most populous city is spurring dramatic confrontations across several immigrate enclaves.
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In New York City, masked federal officers have pepper-sprayed a 72-year-old woman near a park and brought a detainee with a prior tuberculosis diagnosis to be evaluated at a hospital emergency room.
..... New York officials and immigrant rights advocates have responded with demonstrations and training in the latest standoff over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts.
..... "If they flood the city, we're gonna do the same," said Francis Madi, director of leadership initiative and volunteer programs at the advocacy organization New York Immigration Coalition. "We're gonna flood the city with information, mass infraction. We're gonna be out in the streets."
..... In recent days, the New York Immigration Coalition said it has confirmed sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island, all in immigrant enclaves. Officers also took an Ecuadoran detainee to a hospital in Manhattan.
..... Federal officials have long complained about the city and state's so-called sanctuary laws that limit local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE, but the Trump administration has held off on large-scale immigration enforcement in New York City, President Donald Trump's former hometown and a major economic engine, opting instead for smaller enforcement actions including arrests inside federal immigration occur in Manhattan.
..... But in recent weeks, administration officials have threatened to flood the five boroughs,. More than one-third of New Yorkers are foreign-born, according to a 2026 city report. The city has distinct immigrant neighborhoods where speaking Spanish, Arabic, Haitian Creole or Mandarin may be more prevalent than English.
..... Administration officials say New York democrats allow havens for immigrants who have been charged with or convinced of crimes.
..... "there's going to be a surge, and there needs to be a surge," Tom Homan, the White House border czar told Fox & Friends Weekend" on July 19 [2026] when asked about immigration enforcement in New York City. "but I am not going to show our hand, because, you know, there are well-funded groups who will try to impede, interfere. We're not going to give them any upside on this."
..... Abgiail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said anyone present illegally in the United States can and will be deported.
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"The Trump Administration is totally committed to enforcing federal immigration law," Jackson said in a statement.
..... Tense standoffs have already unfolded in recent days.
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One of the most active areas that may give insight is a residential street corner in the Inwood neighborhood at Manhattan's northernmost tip. Once a haven for Irish immigrants, it now has the largest concentration of Dominicans in the nation, along with large numbers of Mexican and Central American immigrants.
..... On July 30, [2026] footage captured ICE officers suing pepper spay on a crowd protesting near Inwood Hill Park. footage reviewed by USA Today showed a masked officer walk up to Linda Woliff, a 72-year-old fashion stylist, and spray her in the face as she filmed near a street corner on her phone in front of a community garden and the Good Shepherd Catholic School.
..... The Department of Homeland Security said demonstrators became "combative and verbally assaultive" after the officer were trying to recover a government-owned van that had been vandalized earlier in the day. The agency said officers used pepper spray to contain the crowd, using their training and the minimum amount of force necessary.
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In an interview, Woliff, who has been active in protests against ICE, said she had traveled to Inwood from Midtown Manhattan after hearing of federal officers' presence on social media. She said she exchanged words with a tow truck driver who was towing the van. After she and the driver argued about him helping ICE, a masked ICE officer went to her and sprayed he in the face. a second ICE officer dressed in all black and also masked, stood nearby with what he said on video was a taser.
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"I'm just a simple demonstrator," Woliff, whose throat was still swollen from pepper spray, said August 4. [2026] "Obviously, I'm not going to do anything to get arrested. I'm going to do whatever I can to keep eyes on people."
..... The New York City Police Department said in an email hat its officers arrived after the incident and requested information from ICE officers, who refused the police request. DHS said NYPD is investigating the incident for vandalism.
..... John Burris, a civil rights lawyer who is representing Woliff, said his client had no physical altercation with officers and she was exercising her First Amendment rights of free speech. He said the footage showed an ICE officer nonchalantly walk over and spray her.
..... "It's gong like officers who are carte Blanche to do as they please, when they pleas," he said. "That's the part that's most troubling."
..... Woliff intends to file a lawsuit against the federal government for violating her civil rights, according to her attorney.
..... The Trump administration has been mired in controversy over aggressive tactics in other cites: immigration officers fatally shot two American citizens in Minnesota, triggering protests.
..... Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin promised quieter operations, in contrast to sweeping street raids seen in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago. In July, [2026] traffic stops in Houston and Maine turned deadly when ICE officers shot into vehicles, killing two unarmed men.
..... "Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country including in New York, Katherine Currie, an agency spokeswoman, said in response to emailed questions. We do not discuss future or ongoing operations."
..... Tactics in New York appear to depart from the low-profile enforcement officers appear more visible in vehicles and masked, in contrast with a New York state law banning law enforcement from wearing masks.