Dante de Blasio, the 29-year-old son of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, was taken into custody Tuesday evening after joining a left-wing protest targeting a Manhattan hotel they wrongly believed was sheltering federal immigration agents.
According to The Post Millennial, law enforcement officials said de Blasio was arrested around 6 pm after he and dozens of anti-ICE agitators flooded the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn Tribeca on Sixth Avenue near West Broadway.
Authorities reported that he was charged with disorderly conduct after refusing repeated NYPD directives to vacate the private property, underscoring a growing pattern of activist groups treating civil disobedience as a license to disrupt businesses and public order.
De Blasio later attempted to frame his arrest as a moral stand against federal immigration enforcement. I was arrested while protesting the deployment of ICE agents to New York City, de Blasio told the New York Daily News, adding, ICE is operating like a rogue, authoritarian agency, snatching people, including many US citizens, off the streets with impunity."
He escalated his rhetoric further, declaring, ICEs violent and authoritarian tactics are un-American. Clamping down on protests and murdering citizens for the crime of speaking out and protesting is a direct contradiction of the founding principles of our country. ICE has no place in New York City. Such claims mirror the broader progressive narrative that demonizes immigration enforcement while ignoring the rule of law and the rights of American citizens who expect their borders to be secure.
Inside the hotel, protesters reportedly remained for more than 45 minutes, brandishing signs that read Hilton stop housing ICE and Hilton dont let ICE stay. Their campaign sought to pressure a private company into blacklisting federal agents, a tactic increasingly favored by the activist left to isolate and delegitimize lawful government functions.
Upon his release from custody, de Blasio took to social media to celebrate his arrest as a badge of honor. Just got out of jail for protesting ICEs violent, authoritarian actions across the country. ICE has no place in NYC #AbolishICE, he posted on X, embracing the radical Abolish ICE slogan that rejects even basic immigration enforcement.
Police ultimately arrested 66 individuals connected to the demonstration, most on charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. Two protesters were additionally charged with obstruction of governmental administration for allegedly interfering with officers as they attempted to clear the lobby, though both received desk appearance tickets, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
De Blasio later suggested that officers on the scene quietly sympathized with the protest. "Many of the cops on duty that night were the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. I believe that they too understood the stakes of the present crisis, de Blasio said, despite the fact that those same officers were compelled to restore order and enforce the law.
The younger de Blasio has long cast himself as wary of law enforcement, having previously written that he feared police and had the talk with his father about being a black teenager interacting with officers. His latest arrest fits neatly into that narrative, even as it highlights the tension between activist theatrics and the everyday responsibilities of police in a city already strained by crime and illegal immigration.
Activists with Sunrise Movement NYC said they targeted the Tribeca Hilton after receiving unverified tips that ICE agents were staying there. We were following the lead of our friends in Minneapolis who have been dealing with Hiltons there housing ICE agents, said organizer Carly Shaffer, 25, adding, Theyve been leading a pretty aggressive campaign to get Hilton to stop housing ICE agents. If these agents dont have a place to sleep, they cant be in our neighborhoods terrorizing them.
A law enforcement official later contradicted the activists central claim, stating that no ICE agents were present at the hotel that night. The episode underscores how radical groups, empowered by a broader progressive climate hostile to immigration enforcement and encouraged by Democrat leaders who routinely vilify ICE, are willing to disrupt private businesses and public safety based on rumor rather than fact.
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