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FEDERAL AGENTS IN NY RETREAT IN SUV WITH SLASHED TIRES AS PROTESTERS
SHOUT ‘GESTAPO’  
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Gino Fanelli
September 10, 2025
Gothamist
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_ The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as
agents in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-led action
drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been
slashed. _

Fed agents in Rochester retreat with slashed tires on their SUV after
angry protest over their immigrant action.,

 

Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a
roofing job site in an affluent Rochester neighborhood after being
confronted by more than 100 protesters on Tuesday.

The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as agents
in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-led action drove a
Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed.

One of the roofers working on a rental home in the Park Avenue
neighborhood was taken into custody. But agents left others apparently
unchecked on the home's rooftop.

Confrontations between immigration agents and protesters have been
escalating across the country, leading the Trump administration to
deploy National Guard troops to cities like Los Angeles and elsewhere.
John Sarcone, the acting U.S. attorney for New York's Northern
District, said on Tuesday that New Yorkers can “expect to see”
more immigration raids like one at a food processing plant in Cayuga
County that resulted in 57 people being taken into custody
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Roofing contractor Clayton Baker identified the man in Rochester taken
into custody by ICE as “Chino,” one of his employees. Baker said
Chino has been in the United States for about 25 years and had legal
documentation to work.

[Workers on a rooftop.]

Two workers on a roofing job at the rental house in the Park Avenue
neighborhood as protestors confronted ICE and other federal
immigration agents.  Gino Fanelli/NYPNN

“They took my best worker that's been working with me for five
years, and just basically, ‘See you later,’ you know?” Baker
said. “He's a family guy, and he's got a baby on the way. He's never
even had a speeding ticket that I know of. He goes to church every
Sunday, and he pays his taxes.

“But you want to come get him off of a hardworking job,” Baker
continued. “It's bulls---, and it's inhumane and it's sad.”

A spokesperson for U.S Customs and Border Protection said this was an
ICE-led enforcement action and referred questions to that agency. ICE
did not respond to a request for comment. The action also included
agents from the IRS and other agencies.

Rochester’s sanctuary status has already drawn the attention of
Trump’s ”border czar” Tom Homan
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the U.S. Department of Justice, with a federal lawsuit filed by the
administration
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Mayor Malik Evans and City Council President Miguel Meléndez over the
policy. Last month, Rochester's City Council unanimously approved
reaffirming its sanctuary city status.
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Immigrants make up a large share of the construction workforce,
particularly those essential to home building — including more than
half of all roofers, according to the National Association of Home
Builders
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In New York specifically, more than a third of all construction
workers are foreign-born, records show.

In a video posted to Facebook, an ICE agent tells immigrant advocates,
referring to the workers still on the roof: "They already admitted
they are here illegally, and I can make a warrantless arrest. ...
We're waiting for them to come down."

But as time went on — the whole ordeal lasted about four hours,
advocates said — representatives with the Western New York Coalition
of Farmworker Serving Agencies began urging the agents to move on,
arguing that the workers weren't coming down, the arrests weren't
going to happen and the crowd was only continuing to grow. The agents
relented, they said, and they offered to help them leave, urging
protesters to step aside.

“The coalition is committed to standing alongside farmworkers,
immigrants and migrants to ensure dignity, fairness and access to
justice,” the coalition's Executive Director Irene Sanchez said in a
news release Tuesday evening. “In moments like this, our role is to
make sure people know their rights and to safeguard their due process
under the law.”

It was not immediately clear where Chino was taken. Baker said he is
worried about making ends meet without his best worker, and is
concerned for Chino’s family.

“It’s going to affect me, it's going to affect their family,” he
said. “I don't even care about my bills. I'm just going to sacrifice
the money and just give it to the family and I'll figure something
else out.”

[Protesters flipping the bird.]

Protestors follow a Border Patrol SUV, applauding and making obscene
hand gestures as the vehicle is driven away with all four tires
slashed.  Gino Fanelli/NYPNN

For the activists and organizers, getting the immigration agents —
several of whom were masked — to leave the jobsite was a sign of
strength in numbers.

“These folks [the workers] deserve the same opportunity that each of
us get, and so it's important that we are here, we are Rochester
strong, and we will not have ICE coming in and dividing us,” said
the Rev. Myra Brown, pastor for Spiritus Christi. “We are one
Rochester, and we will always be one Rochester. We will show up for
each other.”

The action on Westminster Road, which runs from Canterbury Road to
East Avenue, comes at a time when federal immigration enforcement has
further ratcheted up under President Donald Trump's direction. The
entire state delegation representing Rochester — all Democrats —
arrived at the scene as ICE began to leave.

Assemblymember Harry Bronson said the federal administration's actions
were a means of attempting to further divide the country.

“This is pitting one group of people against another group of
people,” Bronson said. “This is an attempt to attack our
democracy, because a democracy can only operate under the rule of law
and can only operate if our leaders are following the law. And they're
not doing this, they're pushing the envelope, and they're doing this
because they want to have a boogeyman out there, and for them, the
boogeymen are people of color and people who aren't originally from
the United States.”

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to lift a court order in
Los Angeles
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stopped ICE agents from targeting people based on race, spoken
language, or work. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in a post
on X, responded to the ruling by saying “DHS law enforcement will
continue to FLOOD THE ZONE in Los Angeles."

Assemblymember Jen Lunsford said the ruling and its implications set a
dangerous precedent.

“Every single one of us here have ancestors that at one point
wouldn't have been American enough,” she said. “And I'm waiting
for the day that it comes back around and some of us are declared not
American enough. No matter where we were born, we have to make sure
that we are standing firm for what the Constitution actually says at
this point, not what our Supreme Court is saying it means, because I
am watching the erosion of the rule of law every single day.”

_Gino Fanelli is a reporter for the New York Public News Network in
Rochester._

* ICE protest
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* Rochester
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* Agents retreat
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