ICE Raids: Rally Organized In New York Opposing Deportations

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — New Yorkers are organizing a rally on Friday night to protest the deportations of undocumented migrants as President Donald Trump repeats his campaign promise to expel millions of people from the U.S. To get follow this story and get more neighborhood news from the Financial District, sign up for breaking news alerts from the Tribeca-FiDi Patch by clicking here.

"With growing fear that Trump will deport millions of undocumented immigrants, particularly in urban areas that do not strictly enforce immigration laws, we're showing up to let them know: this will NOT happen in New York City under our watch," the rally's organizers wrote on the event's Facebook page. The rally will begin at 6 p.m. at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan and is hosted by a coalition of local groups.

In the last week, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have detained more than 100 people in home raids across Southern California, according to immigration advocates. ICE officials have said the recent raids are routine and not part of Trump's promised deportation plans.

Although ICE also regularly conducted raids during Barack Obama's administration, renewed attention has been brought to deportations under Trump because of the president's well-documented anti-immigration attitude. Trump pledged repeatedly throughout his campaign to deport millions of undocumented migrants. Trump's pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was one of his most famous and oft-repeated promises throughout 2016.

ICE deported 333,341 undocumented migrants in 2015 under Obama, according to a data analysis from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. From 2009 to 2015, about 2.8 million immigrants in total were deported by the Obama, Pew's analysis found.

Lead photo by Simone Wilson/Patch.

This post has been updated with additional information.