ICE Removes an Injured Man From a Brooklyn ER at 2 a.m., Setting Off a Standoff With Protesters

ICE agents arrested Chidozie Wilson Okeke, a Nigerian national, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn and took him to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center for injuries sustained during the arrest. About 200 protesters gathered outside the hospital overnight. When agents removed Okeke from the emergency room at roughly 2:15 a.m. on May 3, clashes broke out with NYPD officers; an ICE agent deployed pepper spray into the crowd and a departing vehicle struck a protester. Eight to nine demonstrators were arrested on charges including criminal mischief and obstruction.

The episode turned into a dispute over New York City's sanctuary laws, which limit local police cooperation with civil immigration enforcement. Critics said the NYPD's crowd-control role effectively facilitated the ICE removal; Mayor Zohran Mamdani said there was no NYPD-ICE coordination but promised to review response protocols and renewed his call to abolish ICE. Border czar Tom Homan said federal agents would "flood the zone" if the city tightened restrictions further.

No federal review of the agents' conduct had been announced as of the reporting reviewed. State legislators advanced expanded sanctuary protections in the weeks that followed.