Marian Swerdlow
The following account is an activist’s report of her experiences and frustrations in joining the immigrant rights defense network Hands Off New York City (HO NYC), where the Upper Eastside activity is apparently under the rather heavy-handed leadership of a local Democratic Party club. Perhaps — at least we’d like to think — in other areas the work might be less bureaucratically dominated. In any case we find this detailed chronicle to be useful and instructive. Most importantly of course, we applaud the efforts and dedication of everyone, from whatever perspective, willing to take to the streets and neighborhoods in defense of communities under ICE’s reign of domestic terror.–The ATC editors
October 31, 2025 – Email from Hands Off New York City (HO NYC)
“Thanks for joining the Hands Off NYC city-wide call! Next up: Build your community on November 15 . . .
P.S. we’ve learned from other cities across the country how rapid response depends on hyper local organizing. Stayed tuned for info on how you can help get your block ready for some peaceful, joyous [sic] noise if ICE shows up!”
At that moment, the relatively limited extent of ICE activity in New York City seemed to be part of the Mayor Adams-Trump detente. But it looked as if we were about to elect a self-proclaimed socialist as mayor, and it was widely feared that, when he took office in 2026, Trump could respond with an ICE invasion. Getting prepared with block-by-block organization seemed both sensible and a way to encourage popular direct action.
According to email above, HO NYC had released a statement from more than a hundred community, religious and labor organizations earlier that month, pledging to work together for “non-violent resistance.” This coalition seemed broad enough to be the beginnings of a coordinated, yet locally autonomous, effective fight back.
When HO NYC advertised a Manhattan training, which would include time to meet by neighborhood, I signed up.
Manhattan Hands Off New York City Immigrant Defense Training Midtown Manhattan November 22, 2025
Hundreds of people filled the long, shallow SEIU1199 UHE union hall. Bright lights and a high ceiling magnified its spaciousness, while good acoustics kept the crowd’s voices to a low buzz. Screens were arrayed in the front so that everyone could see the speakers and slides.
Many present noted that the ratio of women to men looked very high.
Buttons were piled on tables in the back. So were small zip loc plastic bags, with these contents (below), and a cheap, cottony yellow and black paisley neck scarf.
Near the end of the 4-hour training, we were sent to different rooms to meet in neighborhood groups. Mine filled with around thirty people. We were told to download the Signal app if we didn’t already have it. Someone went around with a QR code and we each scanned it, without any idea of what Signal group we were joining.
Not long after that, a UES (Upper Eastside) HO NYC group appeared on my Signal app.
Canal Street, Manhattan, Saturday, November 29, 2025
Around 10 in the morning, an alert appeared on that Signal channel that ICE was at a garage near Canal Street, staging for another raid on Chinatown. This led me to a citywide and several area RR (Rapid Response)/Patrol groups became my immigrant defense work. However, my subject here will be HO NYC, particularly on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan.
Small Business Outreach
December 11, 2026
A notice appeared on the UES HO NYC channel, from the Administrator, “VE” (No full names of group members will be used).
We are going to do a virtual meetup on Saturday, December 13 11 am – 12:30 pm
. . . We’ll do a training on small business outreach and then we will talk a bit about what else we can do together moving forward . . .
Her next message added a mention of a “community building convo.”
With 14 people present, “VE” told that she was a member of the Four Freedoms Democratic Party Club, and of the New York State Democratic Party Committee. She proceeded to narrate, nonstop, a 42-minute, step-by-step, scenario of a visit to a “small business,” using phrases such as “Here’s what you’re going to say,” and “then, the next thing you’re going to say.
. . ”explaining how to persuade managers to take “Know Your Rights” (KYR) information, and post signs prepared by HO NYC. She interspersed these instructions with exhortations like “make this your own . . . bring your whole self . . . ”
Almost all the storefronts on the Upper Eastside are part of a chain, whether it’s a few locally based places, or regional, or national. Apparently, these would be considered “small businesses.”
Since there was no chance to speak, I wrote in the chat that there were many immigrants who come to our neighborhood to work in homes and construction sites, not in outward-facing businesses, that I had prepared KYR literature in Spanish and English with sections specifically designed for these workplaces, and I was interested in forming patrols that would do direct outreach to those immigrants. We would become familiar faces to immigrant workers, so they would contact us if ICE appeared, or if they suspected it was around, and we would be prepared to respond. I requested that anyone interested message me. Nobody did.
When “VE” finished speaking, she read my message from the chat, and responded that the Four Freedoms Democratic Party Club was already doing small business outreach, and they did include large chains like Starbucks, and they had literature in many languages. Now that I could finally speak, I repeated that I was referring to workers who didn’t work in storefronts, but in homes or at the large number of sites where construction or other work on buildings is going on in our area. I went on to say that I was concerned by her description of small business outreach, because it depended on the manager to share the KYR literature with workers, and to post the signs. I suggested there’d be managers who would take them from us, because we’re potential customers, but not follow through. “VE” responded that they “make sure we speak to every employee, and give each a red [KYR] card.” She didn’t say, so I asked her what languages she spoke. “English,” she answered, and repeated that they have literature in many languages.
January 5, 2026 – Email from HO NYC
“Neighborhood groups: We’re establishing and connecting neighborhood groups across the city, so you can easily find an organizing home to take action and tap into rapid response networks . . . ”
January 6 and 18, 2026
“VE” posted an announcement on the UES HO NYC Signal channel (right)
It was clear that VE was aligning this Signal group with her Democratic Party Club, and incorporating the members of the HO NYC group into the club’s activities.
February 7, 2026
At the next Zoom meeting, “VE” began by telling us “some agreed upon norms . . .” without saying who had “agreed upon” them. “Does everyone feel good about these rules?” Silence. She continued, “This is what we are going to talk about,” and next, “I want this to be a conversation. I’ve been in touch with the leadership. If you have a question, ask. There are no stupid questions.” She said there was going to be a “Hands Off Weekend of Action” in two weeks. This came “from Headquarters,” but, we, “as a community get to decide what we want to do in our community; NYC HO is not going to dictate. They may have some suggestions.”
“KH” said she was “curious to hear what was happening” with the small business outreach. “VE” answered “This is ongoing. Indivisible and the Four Freeedoms Democratic Party Club have been all over the city, and we are providing trainings in ‘deep canvassing.’” She reported what avenues they’d canvassed, but didn’t discuss what happened during the visits. “Deb” said she was concerned that “we are giving a big download to managers . . . ” by expecting them to distribute and explain to their employees the literature we were leaving with them.
“Deb” continued with doubts that they were even getting their message across to the managers, saying in some places, “we walked away unsure how much . . . We are not directly engaging with the managers.” This made my ears perk up: At the December meeting, “VE” had countered my concerns on exactly this issue by insisting the small business canvassers would speak, and give a KYR card, to each worker individually. The picture “Deb” conveyed was even worse than what I had feared: she wasn’t even sure that the canvassers had been reaching the managers. “VE” brushed this off, “We know this is happening . . . ” and returned to her main concern: the Weekend of Action.
Bells and Whistles
During this designated weekend, “VE” told us, “a lot of local electeds are going to be using their offices as distribution sites,” for the type of whistle kit at the Manhattan-wide training in November. She was “very excited” about the kit-making meeting that had taken place earlier that day, and asked the “whistle kit people” to speak. Sixteen people had made four hundred kits.
In the chat, “Genevieve” wrote, “Who do we give the whistles to?” adding that she’s been giving them to the people in her synagogue. She suggested “a guide for giving them to children.” This has some logic, since, although immigrants don’t live around here, they might come here for school as well as to work.
“I don’t think we should be giving them to minors.”
Someone suggested distributions in coffee shops. Another, the subway. “VE” objected, “These kits are not advisable for people of color.”
A discussion followed on how to get the KYR information into the homes of people who actually need it, without giving them whistles. Finally, someone drew the logical conclusion, “The people who need the KYR information are different from the people to give the whistles to.” Someone said, “There’s a division: the KYR to the schools, the whistles are separate.” It seemed obvious this discussion should have taken place before four hundred whistle kits were assembled. “VE” jumped in hurriedly, “We have to focus on the Weekend!”
“Genevieve” typed in the chat: “What are we doing now? Who are we hitting? Who do we want to hit?” “KH” addressed this, “We should discuss who we want to target in a small group,” not in this larger Zoom meeting. That shut down that discussion. “VE” said, “We want to protect our neighbors,” ignoring the fact that our actual neighbors don’t include any immigrants in danger of abduction, and then asked to “get back to The Weekend.”
February 20, 2026
An email from HO NYC had a link to a map of the “Weekend of Action.” There was nothing on the Upper Eastside.
Arts and Crafts
In addition to multiple sessions of packing whistle kits, members of the UES HO NYC Signal group have been participating in workshops to print pro-immigrant designs and slogans on clothing and tote bags, to make posters, and to learn how to create a single page “zine.”
Coffee Group
February 13, 2026
“Shelley” posted on the channel that she was starting a new, separate Signal group, “Coffee Group UES,” for UES HO NYC members who wished to meet for coffee once a month, explaining that, in terrible times like these, it’s important to get together and just talk. (Two months later, “Shelley” wrote on Signal that “VE” had asked her to do this.) Within a week, Alex Bores made a request to join. Bores was not a member of UES HO NYC. He is a local pol locked in a tough, close primary battle for the DP nomination for the U.S. House seat being vacated by the retiring Jerry Nadler. Both Bores and his leading competitor have been endorsed by strings of big name City electeds. So, when I saw his request to join the “Coffee Group,” I posted, “I guess the Four Freedoms Democratic Party Club has endorsed Alex Bores.” “VE” jumped in to say yes, it had, but his request was not based on his candidacy but on his being part of the Upper Eastside community. Other Coffee Group members, possibly also members of the same Party club, chimed in to support her and Bores. Bores said he would leave the Coffee Group channel, bringing pleas to him to stay. A week later, he quietly rejoined.
UES HO NYC DD/RR Training, March 16, 2025
An announcement appeared on the UES HO NYC Signal channel that it would sponsor a 2-hour “Deportation Defense (DD) and RR Training” that would cover “walks,” the term sometimes used for patrols. I had been trying to find or start a Patrol and Rapid Response group on the Upper Eastside, so I registered.
Fifteen people showed up. The subject of “walks,” left for last, came up as the meeting hit the 2-hour mark. The presenter gave a rushed, generic description of how patrols worked. It didn’t relate to our neighborhood or its specific characteristics. There was no chance for discussion or planning how to organize “walks” on the Upper Eastside. We got a QR code without any information what Signal channel it was for. A week later, I got a Signal message that enabled me to sign up for any of several “DD/RR” groups for different parts of the city.
One was lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn; another was upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Not only was there none for the Upper Eastside, it was impossible to discern which of those two would encompass my neighborhood.
April 2026
There is still no RR/Patrol group on the Upper Eastside. But there is a coffee group.
The Democratic Party and UES HO NYC — Conclusions
What did UES HO NYC do, under the leadership of the Four Freedoms Democratic Party Club, that actually helped immigrant defense?
Did the “small business outreach” campaign help immigrants?
During the February 7 Zoom meeting, “Deb” revealed that, at best, the “small business outreach” was only interacting with managers, and in some places at least “we are not directly engaging with the managers,” raising the question of with whom they were speaking and leaving the “KYR” material.
Did assembling whistle kits help immigrants?
The people in the UES HO NYC group assembled hundreds of these kits. But they never had a clear idea of to whom to give them, or a plan of how to do it. When it was discussed on February 7, it came out that no thought had been given even to what items belonged together in a kit. “VE” said whistles should not be given to “people of color,” which would include most immigrants, and no alternative way of getting KYR information to them was discussed. When “Genevieve” tried to discuss this, she was told those matters should be left up to “a smaller group.”
Did the coffee hours, or the crafting, or the DD/RR training, without any plan how to implement it, help immigrants?
I think the answers are obvious: none did.
Why was “VE” so strongly opposed to my efforts to organize a local RR/Patrol group?
I can’t read her mind. But my educated guess is that it was based on the chance, however small, that some action by such a group, or any of its individual members, could be treated as a serious crime. The possibility of association with that kind of crime — a crime committed in the cause of justice, not for material gain – would be anathema to an official of a major party.
So, why was the Four Freedoms Democratic Party Club involved with HO NYC at all, if not to help immigrants?
For the same reasons other political parties and organizations are drawn to a cause that has popular appeal: to gain influence, supporters, activists and recruits. That was clearest in the set up of the coffee group as a place where an important candidate with the Club’s endorsement could meet potential donors, canvassers, poll watchers, voters, etc.
It’s been said that the Democratic Party is the “graveyard of social movements.” On however small a scale, the way its Democratic Party leadership channeled, stymied, and stifled whatever potential existed in UES HO NYC to help build the immigrant defense movement, provides a case study of that.