Anti-Trump Protest Organizers Join Extinction Rebellion to Demand Access to NY ICE Facility

Dil Bar Irshad | August 12, 2025 | Featured Edition | Follow on Google News

Anti-Trump Protest Organizers Join Extinction Rebellion to Demand Access to NY ICE Facility

New York City — This afternoon, activists with the New York chapters of 50501 and Extinction Rebellion joined forces to demand oversight access to immigration court facilities on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza. At least 8 were arrested blockading the roadway outside of the Federal building, part of a series of “Rage Against the Regime” protests.

For months, ICE officers have been apprehending migrants showing up for routine immigration hearings without warrants, due process or identification as law enforcement. Once in custody, many are held for illegally long periods, in overcrowded, filthy cells without beds, hygiene, medical care, or access to legal counsel. 

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Oversight access to the 10th-floor holding cells at 26 Federal Plaza has been largely denied under the Trump administration’s restrictive policies. Lawmakers and agencies argue that these denials violate federal law, reflecting a broader pattern of the administration’s disregard for the rule of law. This obstruction effectively blocks independent monitoring of conditions in immigration detention facilities and allows serious abuse allegations to go unchecked.

The protest comes on the heels of Friday demonstrations that partnered 50501 NYC with climate groups Planet over Profit, Climate Defenders, Greenfaith, and Greta Thunberg’s youth movement Fridays for Future. More than 20 people were arrested after marching and giving speeches outside the courts. An encampment called Liberty City, which supplies mutual aid and community care from sunrise to sunset, has also been set up. However, it does not take part in civil disobedience to protect their right to remain there.

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“What is being done to immigrants who have committed no crimes is only a beginning,” said Nate Smith, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. “We should remember the poem ‘first they came for the…’ is very short.”

“Climate change is still an abstract concept to many Americans,” Smith continued, “but its consequences—crop failure, drought, deforestation, and extreme weather—are already driving displacement on a massive scale. Masked thugs and walls—is that our response?”

Scientists warn that climate pressures are expected to accelerate mass migrations in the coming decades, driving both internal displacement and cross-boarder movements, especially in the vulnerable regions of the Global South. Activists involved in the protest emphasize that responses to this growing challenge must prioritize human rights and humanitarian principles rather than punitive enforcement. Climate change and migration are deeply interconnected issues that will test governments’ commitments to justice, transparency, and democratic norms.

Extinction Rebellion first took the global stage after bringing the city of London to a standstill for several days in November 2018, quickly winning concessions like getting their government to be one of the first to declare a climate emergency. More recently, the New York chapter has garnered millions of views protesting tech companies for supporting what it calls the “fascist” Trump Administration while pretending to hold opposing policies like emissions reductions. Just last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook symbolically reinforced this contradiction by presenting Trump with a gold plaque at the White House.

About Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action on the climate and nature emergency.

Extinction Rebellion exists because the conventional approaches: voting, writing to politicians, lobbying, and signing petitions, have failed. Powerful political and economic interests prevent change, as does our outdated political system itself. Our strategy is therefore one of nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience – in short, it is a strategy of rebellion.

Climate boiling is here and now. It’s happening all around us, and it hits historically vulnerable communities hardest of all. Extinction Rebellion demands that all of us, especially major institutions and governments, tell the truth about the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction. Extinction Rebellion believes that, when faced with the government’s criminal inaction, it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, through peaceful civil disobedience .

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Internationally, Extinction Rebellion has been demanding that those with power act now to halt the worst outcomes of the climate catastrophe currently unfolding. Unlike other climate advocacy groups, Extinction Rebellion understands that we must go beyond politics and establish Citizens’ Assemblies. Citizens’ Assemblies are deliberative bodies that are, like juries, formed of randomly selected members of the public. Assembly members hear expert testimony and develop recommendations on specific policy issues. Only through this method can we achieve the fair and just transition we need.