Approximately 100 rowdy demonstrators gathered in Lower Manhattan Saturday to protest the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at an ICE facility this week.
The agitators held signs in Foley Square reading “No ICE, no DOGE, no state terror,” and “ICEstapo must go!” and at least one appeared to hound and follow a supporter of President Trump who showed up as a counter-protest.
Elected officials, including Democratic mayoral candidate state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and socialist NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, also spoke.
Mamdani attempted to link some of his opponents for City Hall to the president.
“For the Trump Administration, just like Mayor Eric Adams, just like Andrew Cuomo, the law is merely a suggestion,” Mamdani whined while addressing the crowd.
“We will stand up for the people that those laws protect, and we will do so each and every day, and we will do so at each and every juncture, because what the Trump Administration is looking for is permission to keep rolling those rights back, and at every attempt, we will be there, we will fight them, and we will defeat them,” he continued.
Socialist NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also slammed the president, bellowing into a blowhorn, “This administration is an embarrassment.”
The protest came less than 24 hours after Baraka was arrested, then released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at Delaney Hall.
The Newark Mayor wants the ICE facility shut down.
“We know we’re right. What we ask for is correct,” he told supporters Friday night after he was released.
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