amNewYork reported that opposition to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement was a factor in the Democrats' big win in the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 3. ICE arrests and family separations at the immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan were cited as symbols of that enforcement. Immigrant advocacy groups and religious leaders called on the new Congress for oversight and dialogue, but no specific policy changes have been reported yet.
According to amNewYork, Democrats led by wide margins across federal House and Senate, gubernatorial and state legislative races in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The outlet reported that voters and experts see the results as a verdict on cost-of-living pressures and foreign policy, while noting that immigration enforcement remains central to the debate. In particular, the scenes of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at the immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan are seen as having shown the reality of enforcement. However, the original report does not say specifically how the election results will change actual immigration policy.
amNewYork explained that when reporters gained access to the federal building in the summer of 2025, the public got a rare chance to see ICE arrests and family separations. Children cried as they were pulled away from their parents, and in June 2025, then-New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was himself arrested by ICE agents at the federal building. Enforcement later spread to the streets, and in October 2025, street vendors on Canal Street in Chinatown were detained. In June, a hunger strike at Delaney Hall in New Jersey drew national attention, and the outlet reported that during weeks of protests, participants were hit with pepper spray and struck with batons. Earlier, in October, an ICE agent shot and wounded Oscar Belgal, a Dominican national, in Marble Hill, and as of Oct. 23 he was still in ICE detention.
Peter Melck Kuttel, who handles detainee support at Saint Peter's Church, has helped detained immigrants at the federal building's court since the summer of 2025. He told amNewYork that these scenes played a major role in making Americans stop accepting the government's account of immigration enforcement. He explained that even if a vote for President Trump two years ago was a choice for border control, that is not the same as approving of tearing families apart. Kuttel said he has rarely seen immigrants with serious criminal records, and has not seen the "worst of the worst" that Border Czar Tom Homan has described as enforcement targets.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, called the election a rejection of President Trump's hardline policies toward immigrants. He urged the new Congress to hold rigorous oversight hearings on ICE, including on detentions at 26 Federal Plaza, and to create a pathway to citizenship. Father Fabian Arias of Midtown Manhattan said he hopes for a path of dialogue and reconciliation so that immigrant families can live without fear of enforcement, deportation and family separation.
The original report focuses on sites in the New York and New Jersey area, including the federal building in Manhattan, Chinatown, Marble Hill and Delaney Hall in New Jersey, but it also mentions Minneapolis, California and Texas, where ICE agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens. The report does not say how the election results will change enforcement methods at these facilities or immigration court procedures. The timing of the new Congress's formation and plans for ICE oversight are also not covered in the original report.