Demonstrators clashed with police officers outside a parking garage on the corner of Centre St. and Howard St. in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Saturday, claiming they were blocking federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside who were planning enforcement action.
Protesters obstructed one-way traffic with a pile of garbage on Centre St. to stop vehicles from leaving the garage. An NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that several protestors were taken into custody.
Lee Smith said he came out to protest when he saw news reports of the incident.
‘The police were down on Canal Street,” he said in an interview at the scene. ‘We’ve seen quite a bit of damage, garbage cans being thrown over, planter pots being broken.”
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency did not immediately respond to questions about whether protestors had blocked ICE agents from leaving the garage and whether they were preparing an enforcement action at the time the protest broke out.
The demonstration comes after ICE agents have taken enforcement action on Canal St. several times in recent weeks, including an arrest last Saturday.
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.