Sixty-Six Arrested at Anti-ICE Protest in Tribeca Hilton Lobby

A large protest against Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) broke out in the lobby of a Tribeca hotel on Tuesday, Jan. 27, with 66 protesters arrested—most on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct.

The protest was centered around the Hilton Garden Inn at 39 Avenue of the Americas in Tribeca at around 6 p.m., with more than 100 protesters reportedly obstructing pedestrian foot-traffic and waving signs. Some protesters reportedly blew whistles.

Ongoing anti-ICE protests have been ramping up citywide this month, after ongoing immigration raids in Minneapolis, MN, led to the separate fatal shootings of two Americans—Renee Good and Alexi Pretti—by ICE and Border Patrol agents.

Hilton has been targeted by anti-ICE protestors due to some of its locations booking federal agents who conduct immigration raids, although it’s unclear if the specific Tribeca hotel was doing so at the time. Some protesters reportedly wore shirts that read “Abolish ICE” and “Hilton: Stop Housing ICE”.

The protesters were told to disperse by police at around 6:35 p.m., a New York Times reporter on scene noted, possibly after cops were asked to intervene by hotel management. Many people then reportedly left the lobby, with reporters apparently “forced” outside as well, leaving 50 protesters remaining inside.

The Times noted that the Reverend Micah Bucey—the senior minister at Judson Memorial Church, on Washington Square South–was one of the protesters on hand. He was also arrested.

“I know that my God is telling me to be here,” Bucey reportedly said at one point. “I am in solidarity with all of the people in Minneapolis. All of the people in Chicago, all of the people across the country, especially with my immigrant neighbors.”

The NYPD confirmed to Our Town Downtown that arrests began at around 7:30 p.m., after 45 minutes of the remaining protesters refusing to budge.

Of the 66 arrests conducted, 64 protesters were hit with summonses for the aforementioned trespassing or disorderly conduct charges, while the remaining two protestors were given desk appearance tickets for “obstructing governmental administration.”

The lobby was cleared by 8 p.m. The Times reporter on hand noted that a handful of protesters who weren’t arrested made their way up Sixth Ave. towards Washington Square Park, where they dispersed, while some others remained outside the Hilton and chanted “Stop helping ICE!”

A spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who himself has called for the abolition of ICE in recent days, issued a statement in support of the protestors.

Mamdani’s position is that “ICE is a rogue agency that has repeatedly carried out cruel, inhumane and lawless raids and arrests of American citizens,” his aide Sam Raskin told the press.

The Tribeca hotel protest follows other large anti-ICE demonstrations in Manhattan earlier this month.

Hundreds of anti-ICE protesters held a rally at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 8, the day of Good’s widely-publicized shooting; they marched around the nearby 26 Federal Plaza, where federal agents have surprise-arrested multiple undocumented people attending routine immigration hearings.

Hundreds more marched from Foley Square to the World Trade Center the next day, to protest a news conference that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—who oversees ICE—was holding there.