Since last July, leaders and members of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge and Indivisible Brooklyn have held a weekly “Vigil for Democracy” outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, where the Department of Homeland Security is using a wing to house more than 100 immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE).
On Dec. 9, New York state Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado joined the chorus of community members that had assembled on the corner of 3rd Avenue and 29th Street, holding up signs reading “Demand Humanity” or “Honk If You’re Human, No Ice,” demanding an end to ICE detention at the notorious prison complex and to inhumane immigration enforcement practices.
Delgado, who is seeking to replace Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026, noted that protecting immigrant communities was a moral responsibility beyond political obligation and called for the passage of a slew of state legislation, aimed at protecting immigrant New Yorkers, including the New York for All Act, which would prohibit New York state and local agencies, including police and sheriffs, from collaborating with ICE, sharing sensitive information, or diverting personnel or other resources to federal immigration enforcement; the New York Dignity Not Detention Act, which would ban anyone from owning or operating immigrant detention facilities, among other provisions, and the Access to Representation Act, which would establish the right to universal representation, meaning anyone at risk of deportation who cannot afford a lawyer will be provided with one.
“I’m here to tell you, as lieutenant governor, I’m gonna do everything I can to uplift this message, to make it clear that we have a moral responsibility here in New York to see this all the way through,” Delgado said. “Communities are counting on us to fight for them, to stand with them, and to love them.”
He also called for banning the 287(g) agreement, a partnership between ICE and local/state law enforcement that allows deputized local officers to enforce certain federal immigration laws, even in sanctuary cities; and for legislation similar to California’s “No Secret Police Act,” which prohibits most law enforcement, including ICE agents, from wearing masks during operations starting January 1, 2026.
“You shouldn’t need a mask to enforce the law. If you need a mask, it’s because you’re breaking the law,” Delgado stated.
Reverend Juan Carlos Ruiz, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, has been organizing the vigil alongside Indivisible Brooklyn. Ruiz reported that two sisters of his community, who had escaped their country due to persecution and torture, were detained when they reported to their ICE check-in on Tuesday morning.
“They had done everything by the book. They had complied with what the law says, and they were taken in anyway,” Ruiz told the crowd. “So let’s continue to uplift those people that keep being disappeared, separated from their families and their communities.”
Ruiz told Brooklyn Paper that, at a meeting with the Department of Homeland Security and local business leaders and clergy, DHS told them it would “most likely” deploy the National Guard and increase ICE’s presence.
“They can come in anytime,” Ruiz said.
The threat of ICE has impacted the local economy, he said, and many locals are afraid to leave their homes to attend their typical activities.
“It’s not only us, but you can talk to any other priests or pastors, and rabbis, and they will tell you that there is a decrease in attendance,” Ruiz shared. “We have spoken to teachers. We have spoken to people in schools, and they also see a decrease in the attendance of the children. Well, kids are basically, you know, being traumatized.”
As ICE is increasingly ramping up its efforts to arrest immigrants, Hands Off NYC, a campaign that is supported by unions, faith leaders, and community groups, has been organizing workshops and business canvassing and whistle distribution events, educating and preparing New Yorkers for a potential immigration crackdown.
Indivisible Brooklyn member Lee Crawford urged New Yorkers to sign up for the upcoming Hands Off NYC Community Weekend.
“Thousands of people are being trained in understanding how to know your rights and protect our neighbors, and this weekend, Hands Off NYC is building on that training with a weekend of action beginning on the 12th, continuing through the 14th,” Crawford said. “We did it for one day last month, and it was so rewarding to be out there, to be visible together in this fabric of people who care and feel love and will fight back.”
Indivisible Brooklyn activists Bryony Romer and Jill Mont attend the weekly vigil regularly and highlighted the importance of grassroots organizing.
“I don’t think we’re going in a good direction, and I think people need to organize, and just little groups like this can make a difference, and we show people that we care, other people will not feel so lost, and that we won’t lose everything if we band together,” Mont told Brooklyn Paper, noting that, despite the Trump administration’s claims that the overwhelming majority of ICE arrests involved immigrants charged with or convicted of a crime, many immigrants held in ICE detention had no criminal convictions.
“Almost nobody’s taken has broken laws; they’ve come here, they’ve worked, they’ve actually had taxes taken out. They’ve tried to make a life here and be a good citizen,” Mont explained. “People are not being taken under the circumstances that I think the President vowed they would be. They’re being taken under very, very wrong circumstances.”
Romer told Brooklyn Paper that instilling fear was a tool used by fascists and authoritarians, noting that it was more important than ever to stand in solidarity with affected communities and organize to prevent further oppression.
“More and more people are waking up and saying no and saying, ‘This is not the country I want to live in.’ In some cases, people are saying, ‘This is not what I voted for.’ They voted for Trump, but this is not what they imagined was going to happen. So I think that we have a real opportunity to come together,” Romer said. “The goal for [the Trump administration] is to become more repressive. So we need to take action now, because we need that not to happen.”
