Dozens of Ridgewood residents gathered at Grover Cleveland Park on Thursday, June 12, for a passionate community rally organized by the Ridgewood Tenants Union in response to the recent detention of a local high school student by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The event, titled “Ridgewood Unites Against ICE,” was a bilingual neighborhood gathering designed to amplify youth voices, promote community safety, and resist the growing fear among immigrant families. The rally followed the removal of a Grover Cleveland High School student during a routine immigration check-in—an incident that has sent waves of distress through the tight-knit Queens neighborhood.
Speakers addressed the crowd in both English and Spanish, leading chants like “¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!” (“The people united will never be defeated!”) and calling attention to what they described as the criminalization of families who are simply trying to follow the rules. “ICE must be abolished,” one speaker said. “He was doing the right thing. He went with his family, but then he was separated and taken away.”
Attendees shared pizza, snacks, and reflections while emphasizing that the threat extends beyond ICE to the NYPD, which speakers claimed has cooperated with federal agents despite local laws forbidding such actions. “Just this past weekend, the NYPD escorted ICE vehicles out of courthouses,” one organizer said. “They think they can make their own rules.”
The emotional impact of the student’s sudden removal was a rallying point. “For several painful days, his family had no idea where he was,” said Assembly Member Claire Valdez in a statement. “Now we know the terrible truth: he has been abducted and transported thousands of miles away from home to Texas.”
Earlier in the week, Valdez, who represents the district, joined advocates in Albany in an act of civil disobedience, urging her colleagues to pass the New York for All Act — legislation that would prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. “This outcome is barbaric,” Valdez said in a statement. “We must fight this administration with every tool available to us. One tool is New York for All. We must pass it and get ICE out of New York.”
The rally closed with an invitation to continue the conversation beyond the park, encouraging attendees to talk to friends, family, and neighbors about what resistance looks like and how mutual care can combat fear. “None of us may have the answers alone, but together, we can figure them out,” said one youth speaker.
