Jewish leaders demand ICE out of New York City

At least a dozen clergy were arrested in New York City April 30 while protesting against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Ten rabbis and two Christian ministers were taken away in handcuffs for blocking traffic in front of 26 Federal Plaza, an immigration courthouse where ICE has detained immigrants, according to T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.

Protesters held signs bearing the names and photographs of 21 people ICE has killed in 2026. A group of about 200 supporters on a nearby sidewalk chanted, “That’s my rabbi, that’s my rabbi” as police cuffed demonstrators and led them away.

“The clergy demanded an end to business as usual, protesting ICE’s brutality and cruelty in that building, along with their policies of family separation, holding people in cramped and inhumane conditions, and denying them due process,” T’ruah said.

The human rights group and 70 other Jewish organizations and synagogues organized “Jews Demand: ICE Out!” as a national day of action across 17 cities in 10 states.

“Jewish communities around the country took action in solidarity with the growing movement to reject ICE brutality and violence, demanding ICE leave schools and workplaces, parks and streets, places of worship, and communities everywhere.”

On April 6, a protest organized by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice resulted in multiple arrests after demonstrators occupied the lobby of a software company that collaborates with ICE.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended a “Seder in the Streets” protest held the same date, which was the sixth night of Passover. Participants held signs reading, “Jews Against Deportation.”

The timing of the April 30 event was in part designed to draw attention to efforts in Congress to provide additional funding for ICE, according to Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, another organizer of the national day of action.

“We blew our shofars and whistles to demand action,” the civil rights group said. The “way to get ICE out of our cities is to cut off their funding and hold them accountable.”

And that is the situation for the time being after Congress voted to end the government shutdown April 30 by reopening the Department of Homeland Security without additional money for immigration enforcement.

“Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to funnel $140 billion more to ICE and Border Patrol at a time when Americans are struggling to stay housed, stay fed, stay employed and stay healthy, but we won’t look away, we won’t be silent and we will continue to fight back,” Bend the Arc CEO Jamie Beran said during the protest in Manhattan.

“ICE’s lawless, militarized immigration raids — tearing people from schools, workplaces and houses of worship — are an attack on the inclusive American democracy that keeps Jews and every minority community safe,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“The xenophobic replacement theories driving this administration’s enforcement agenda are the same antisemitic ideologies that ​have fueled violence against our community for years,” she said.

The Jewish commitment to protecting immigrants is ancient, Rabbi and T’ruah CEO Jill Jacobs said during the demonstration.

“Today we are proving that we’re not going anywhere, that the Jewish community will stand up against ICE brutality and violence, alongside our neighbors, every time. When we demand ICE leave our cities, we are living our values. When we demand not one more dollar for ICE and CBP, we are living our values. When we cry out against the impunity, the death, the disappearances, we are living our values. This is our Judaism.”

Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, one of those arrested, said peace must be pursued, not simply loved.

“If we desire to have a relationship with God, as a parental figure, then we must interact with all of God’s children as our siblings. I’m protesting because this is not how you treat family,” said Moskowitz, director of scholarship and multi-faith engagement at The Beacon for Democracy.