Syracuse, N.Y. — At a Sunday meeting with Syracuse residents, Mayor Sharon Owens said city police will not enforce federal immigration law or act as agents for ICE under her leadership.
The comments come a day before a planned march and vigil in downtown Syracuse to protest the federal government’s immigration policies and actions and remember Renee Good, who was shot and killed last week in Minneapolis.
On Monday, nearly a dozen Syracuse-area activist groups will lead the ICE Out For Good rally, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Columbus Circle and marching to Clinton Square for a vigil at 4:30 p.m.
The protest aims to demand justice for those harmed or killed by federal immigration enforcement, including ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to organizers.
Tammy Honeywell, one of the protest organizers, said immigration enforcement has escalated locally, heightening fear in immigrant communities across Central New York.
“We don’t want ICE on our streets harassing our neighbors, kidnapping people and using physical force,” she said. The protest is meant to make clear that county residents will not accept collaboration with ICE or other federal immigration agencies.
Owens told the crowd of almost 100 people that immigration enforcement nationwide has been alarming, particularly as people with deep community ties are targeted for minor or long-standing violations.
“What is going on in this nation around immigration is just ridiculous,” the mayor said at the gathering at All Saints Parish Center in Syracuse. “You’re going after people who work in hospitals, who own businesses, who are part of the fabric of our community.”
The mayor said city officials usually learn about ICE activity from residents, social media posts, or calls, noting that neither the Syracuse Police Department nor the mayor’s office receives advance notice of federal enforcement actions.
She stressed that undocumented residents should not be treated as criminals solely because of their immigration status, pushing back against language she said dehumanizes immigrants.
“The diversity of this city is what makes us the best,” Owens said.
Owens, who took office this month, also highlighted housing, lead pipe replacement and workforce development as top priorities, emphasizing equitable investment across neighborhoods. She stressed she plans to work on increasing homeownership, protecting renters, beefing up code enforcement, and collaborating with state and federal agencies on economic development and I-81 projects.
ICE has targeted dozens of people in Central New York in recent months, including restaurant owners, farmworkers, and hospital employees. In November, a French man who overstayed his visa fled to Canada after ICE officers followed him and his husband from their Liverpool home to a Syracuse store.
Honeywell said the protest is deliberately being held near the Civic Center to pressure Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon to retract his direction allowing the county Probation Department to work with ICE.
Activists are also calling on McMahon, the Sheriff’s Office, and Syracuse police to publicly reject collaboration with federal immigration authorities, refuse to share surveillance data, and support the New York for All Act and a Syracuse City Council resolution reaffirming the city’s sanctuary status.
“We are saddened by the murder of Renee Good as well as all the other known and unknown deaths at the hands of DHS,” Lee Cridland, an ICE Out For Good coordinator, said in a press release. Good, a Minneapolis mother, was fatally shot by ICE agents last week after dropping off her 6-year-old son at school.
Co-organizers for Monday’s event are Syracuse Democratic Socialists of America, the CNY Solidarity Coalition, LGBTQ Syracuse, May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Syracuse Immigrant Refugee Defense Network, Citizen Action of New York, Jewish Voice for Peace Syracuse, Syracuse Peace Council, and Indivisible Onondaga County.