March 5, 2026
Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered on Sunday evening to learn about ICE Preparedness. The Town Hall styled event took place in St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side and featured Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, NYC Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu, and NYS Assemblymember Micah C. Lasher. Activists reported on their recent experiences with ICE in Minneapolis, MN and shared tactics and lessons learned. The church was completely full, with all the pews occupied and dozens of more people standing room only in back.
L-R: Breyer, Lasher, Hoylman-Sigal, & Brandeis Raushenbush.
ICE abduction, community networks, clergy support, non-violent resistance, the Christian Nationalist agenda, and grassroots organizing were among the topics discussed. The event was in two parts: a panel discussion among Reverend Doctor Chloe Breyer, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of NY, Assemblyman Micah Lasher, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Reverend Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, President and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, and a Powerpoint presentation concerning what to do if ICE knocks at the door or you witness ICE detaining someone. A hotline reporting number was provided (text or call 229 304 8720), along with guidance on what to report, e.g. location, uniforms, how many, and type of activity. Complimentary whistles were available at the rear of the church, to be used in the event that an encounter with ICE is witnessed.
Attendees were encouraged to share what they’d learned at the Town Hall with their friends and neighbors. Assemblymember Lasher noted that a number of initiatives are currently under consideration to create a legal right for New Yorkers to hold individual Federal officers legally accountable for the deprivation of Civil Rights and to make sensitive locations, e.g. places of worship and schools off-limits to ICE. It was remarked upon that ICE had entered Columbia under false pretenses, claiming to be searching for a missing child, in order to detain a targeted immigrant. The person was eventually released after urgent high level political interventions, but the question was raised, “would that have happened if they weren’t an ‘influencer’ with many followers?”
