Thousands turn out in NY to protest immigration raids
Thousands turn out in NY to protest immigration raids
Officers line up outside the US immigration court at the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in New York City amid a protest against federal immigration sweeps. Photo: Reuters
Several thousand people took to the streets of New York City to protest the immigration policies of US President Donald Trump after a series of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement sparked protests across the country.
"No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here," chanted protesters who initially gathered on Tuesday at Foley Square, a plaza in front of a courthouse where several migrants were detained by law enforcement on Friday.
Protesters marched into lower Manhattan, many carrying signs reading "ICE out of New York" in reference to the federal immigration police whose raids to arrest undocumented immigrants have ramped up in recent weeks.
"I'm here to stand up for those who don't have a voice to be here at the moment, especially for my mum," said one woman, whose Mexican mother's immigration status is undocumented, at the protest.
"Honestly, this country wouldn't be what it is without the immigrants. So I'm here for them," she added.
Another protester named Jacqueline, a 23-year-old American woman with Mexican heritage, said: "I'm here to defend my family... I fear for them now, and I don't want to live in a society where I'm in fear for my family's health."
The march in New York was more peaceful than its counterpart in Los Angeles, where ongoing demonstrations between protesters and police have given Trump an excuse to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines.
Protests like those in LA are "unacceptable and will not be tolerated if attempted in our city", said New York mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday, who added that the New York Police Department was prepared "to handle any issues that may arise, especially when we are faced with deep division in our society". (AFP)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asia Times
3 hours ago
- Asia Times
Europe perfectly placed to lead a world abandoned by US
I believe we Europeans feel far too safe. Europe's political and economic leadership in the world, which was still unchallenged at the beginning of the century, has long since ceased to exist. Will the dominant cultural influence of Europe be maintained? I think not, unless we defend it and adjust ourselves to new conditions; history has shown that civilisations are all too perishable. It is astonishing how much these words used in 1956 by Konrad Adenauer, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, still sound valid today. They perfectly define the current state of the union. Europeans are still struggling to adjust to new conditions – and the conditions to which they need to adjust also continue to change dramatically. The battle for technological leadership is the current version of this struggle. Success in this domain could transform Europe, yet the continent remains complacent about its decline into backwardness. The European Commission itself calculates that of the 19 digital platforms that have more than 45 million EU users, only one (Zalando) is from the EU. Information is (economic and political) power and losing control means to gradually lose both market share and the ability to protect European democracies. Brussels has produced a mass of regulation on digital services, yet American digital platforms are getting away with what European leaders themselves call the manipulation of democratic elections, with very little repercussions. Elon Musk's X, was banned in Brazil for less – refusing to ban accounts accused of spreading misinformation. This decline, however, has been slow enough to lull European leaders into complacency about the future. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has a point when he laments that the European Union has been slow to engage in the negotiations he imposed on trade. Indeed, even on trade – one of the very few areas in which the European Union has a mandate from the member states to deal directly with third parties – progress is generally stuttering. The commissioner in charge has to constantly find a common denominator with the agendas of 27 member states, each of which has a different industrial agenda. Europe's decision-making processes are sub-optimal. Indeed, they were built for a different age. There is no shared voice on foreign policy – the EU has been able to say far less on Gaza than individual countries like Spain or the UK, for example. This may have the practical consequence of eroding the 'moral leadership' that should still be Europe's soft advantage. Europe's failure to respond to real-world changes is due to sub-optimal institutional settings. However, the current paralysis in the face of a clear need for action may be due to an even more fundamental question of trust in its own capabilities. On one hand, there still seems room for complacency. As Stanley Pignal, the Charlemagne columnist for The Economist, recently put it, Europe can take a moderate amount of satisfaction from its continued status as a place where people are free to pursue 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' Yet, it is evident that the institutions needed to concretely achieve those objectives are crumbling: healthcare systems and welfare; robust and independent media; energy and military autonomy in a world without order. On the other hand, Europe is increasingly resigned. A global poll taken by Gallup International shows that when responding to the question 'do you think that your children will live better than you?' seven of the most pessimistic countries of the world are from the EU. Only 16% of Italians and 24% of French respondents answered 'yes' to this question. According to Ipsos, less than half of young Europeans feel prepared to enter the job market. And they blame the education system for that. The picture may well be even worse now – this survey was taken in 2019, before the pandemic, war in Europe and, more importantly, AI made the picture even more uncertain. Europe has no alternative, as even far-right and far-left parties seem to acknowledge. Note that France's Rassemblement National and Italy's Lega no longer talk about exiting the EU but about changing it from the inside. Individual nation-states simply do not have the minimum scale to even try to take leadership in a world looking for a new order. In a world abandoned by the US, Europe stands a real chance. However, it urgently needs to be creative enough to imagine new mechanisms through which EU institutions take decisions and EU citizens have their say. This, in turn, requires an entire society to somehow recover the reasonable hope that decline is not inevitable (although we also must be aware that it may even nastily accelerate). Finally, young people are absolutely crucial in the process. The rhetoric of 'listening to them' must now be replaced by a call for them to govern. They are today what Karl Marx would have probably defined as a class – with very specific demographic, cultural, economic and linguistic characteristics. These must be turned into a political agenda and a new vision of what Europe of the future could look like. Francesco Grillo is academic fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Standard
4 hours ago
- The Standard
Ex-CIA analyst sentenced to over 3 years for leak of classified information
The crest of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
RTHK
5 hours ago
- RTHK
US personnel 'are being moved out of Middle East'
US personnel 'are being moved out of Middle East' A Marine keeps an eye out for potential trouble at the US embassy in Baghdad. File photo: AFP The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks will be held on Sunday in Muscat, the Omani foreign minister said on Thursday, after US President Donald Trump reiterated that Tehran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Trump said on Wednesday US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because "it could be a dangerous place". The United States has been reported as preparing an evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and allowing military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region, according to US and Iraqi sources. The four US and two Iraqi sources did not say what security risks had prompted the decision. Reports of the potential evacuation pushed up oil prices by more than 4 percent before prices eased on Thursday. Foreign energy companies were continuing their operations as usual, a senior Iraqi official overseeing operations in southern oilfields said on Thursday. A US official said the State Department had authorized voluntary departures from Bahrain and Kuwait. The State Department updated its worldwide travel advisory on Wednesday evening to reflect the latest US posture. "On June 11, the Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency US government personnel due to heightened regional tensions," the advisory said. The decision to evacuate some personnel comes at a volatile moment in the region. Trump's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran appear to be deadlocked and US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we'll see what happens," Trump said. "We've given notice to move out." Asked whether anything could be done to lower the temperature in the region, Trump said: "They can't have a nuclear weapon. Very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon." Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and in an interview released earlier on Wednesday said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand. While the evacuation of non-essential personnel raised concerns about a possible regional escalation, a senior Iranian security official told Iran's Press TV on Thursday that US military dependents leaving did not constitute a threat. On Wednesday, Iran's defence minister warned Washington that Tehran would hit US regional bases if drawn into a war in the case of nuclear talks failing. The United States has a military presence across the major oil-producing region, with bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. (Reuters)
