Immigrant rights activists in New York are speaking out about what they describe as an increase in federal immigration enforcement across Queens, as the White House has vowed to target New York City.
Some residents of the Long Island borough gathered Monday evening to draw attention to the increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers present in the community.
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“Over the past few weeks, ICE has been ramping up its presence in our neighborhoods,” said Luba Cortes, a civil rights and immigration organization, who spoke at a Make the Road New York rally at Corona Plaza. “Unsurprisingly, they are targeting Queens, the most diverse place in the world, and a borough where half of the residents were born in another country.”
Local news outlet Pix-11 reported this week that immigrant rights activists said they have seen ICE more active in the Queens neighborhoods of Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, College Point, and Corona.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), who represents Queens, said on Tuesday that ICE was a source of “unacceptable terror” throughout the region.
“Grateful to all our local immigration organizations that continue to shine a light on the unacceptable terror that ICE is inflicting in Queens and throughout other communities. ICE cannot continue to exist in its current form. It must be dismantled,” Meng wrote in a post to X. “But until this happens, I won’t stop fighting until we see real accountability and transparency that stops ICE from ripping apart families in our borough.”
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said he believed the Trump administration only intended to scare the borough’s immigrant residents.
“The Trump administration has never been interested in safety and security. They have only been interested in creating more panic, chaos, and fear, and it has been rooted in their horrific cruelty,” Awawdeh wrote in a post to X.
A large anti-ICE rally is taking place in Corona, Queens after locals say they have seen more immigration enforcement activity in the area. pic.twitter.com/dkagzdIJtz
— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) August 10, 2026
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose district also includes Queens, has not issued a statement on X since the reported surge of ICE officers was reported more than two weeks ago.
NewsNation reported on July 27 that ICE had begun to do more immigration enforcement in Queens and surrounding areas.
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White House border czar Tom Homan first promised in May that ICE would target New York City as a result of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to let ICE take custody of illegal immigrants in the city’s jail at Rikers Island.
Homan responded that ICE’s inability to transfer criminal illegal immigrants from jail into ICE custody safely would instead force ICE to go into communities in search of those people after they are released from jail.
