OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:44 AM – Wednesday, October 22, 2025
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting Director Todd Lyons announced that New York City residents can expect an “increase in ICE arrests” in the city as the agency focuses its attention on major sanctuary cities harboring droves of “criminal illegal aliens.”
“You will see an increase in ICE arrests because there are so many criminal illegal aliens that have been released in New York specifically, and especially have been harbored in New York for the lack of cooperation there in New York City,” Lyons stated in a Wednesday interview.
Lyons went on to note that ICE will be arresting individuals based on provided intelligence, rather than just “pulling people off the street,” while discussing a Tuesday immigration raid on Canal Street.
“So you will see us making those criminal arrests, making New York safe again,” he continued. “But I will tell you it’s definitely intelligence-driven. It’s not random. We’re not just pulling people off the street. There was specific reason, based on criminal intelligence and criminal activity, that we showed up on Canal Street.”
Tuesday afternoon’s operation in Lower Manhattan included over 50 federal agents, in which several men were apprehended. The operation was described by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as being “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin revealed that the operation was led by ICE and also included agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Border Patrol.
According to NBC News, at least five or six individuals were detained, prompting witnesses to chase down the federal agents attempting to return to nearby ICE offices.
As the protests got more populated and violent, several federal agents arrived wearing tactical gear as they attempted to stamp out the crowd, which “became violent and obstructed law enforcement duties, including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement,” according to McLaughlin.
New York City’s Canal Street has attracted illegal vendors selling counterfeit products for decades. A large majority of the vendors are immigrant men, mostly from West Africa, selling fake designer products.
“For the people of New York, they’re going to see ICE and our other federal partners do the law enforcement mission,” Lyons stated during the interview. “This wasn’t just something organically happening overnight, and we just started to go hit Canal Street.”
“With any criminal investigation, you have to build up intelligence, you have to work with sources, you have to go ahead and have the right evidence, and go and work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” he added.
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