On Saturday, May 2, something happened in front of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick that the whole city is still arguing about. ICE agents had arrested a man in his car nearby, he was hurt, and they brought him to the hospital. Word spread, and roughly 200 neighbors showed up outside. What happened next is on video and not really in dispute: an agent pepper-sprayed the crowd, and agents dragged the man, who appeared semi-conscious, out of the emergency room and across the pavement to a vehicle the protesters were trying to block. Eight or nine people were arrested. On the way out, the ICE vehicle drove through the crowd and hit a protester.
The man is Chidozie Wilson Okeke, a Nigerian national. But the question Bushwick’s elected officials want answered is about the cops, not him.
New York is a sanctuary city, and that means the NYPD is broadly barred from helping federal immigration enforcement. Local officials and the people who were there say that is exactly what happened. Council Member Sandy Nurse said what she saw “appeared to be direct coordination between ICE and the NYPD, with officers cordoning off the ambulance bay to allow ICE to move the individual into their vehicle,” and called it “a clear violation of our sanctuary city laws.” Borough President Antonio Reynoso put it plainly: “We don’t want NYPD helping ICE in any way, shape or form.” Assembly Member Claire Valdez called for “a full investigation into any NYPD contact with ICE that night.”
The NYPD and Mayor Zohran Mamdani say the opposite. The department said there was “zero communication or coordination with ICE,” and that four of its own officers were hurt by ICE pepper spray. Mamdani said the officers “were not dispatched to the hospital to participate or facilitate an ICE operation,” but “were responding to 911 calls regarding a protest outside of the hospital.” So the city’s own government is split on its own cops.
The federal side tells it differently still. The Department of Homeland Security said Okeke “weaponized his vehicle to attempt to hit ICE officers” during the arrest, and that ICE only brought him to Wyckoff because “Okeke requested medical assistance.” DHS says the hospital trip was for his benefit, not a raid. Wyckoff Heights Medical Center itself is not quoted in any of the coverage, so what its staff experienced inside is still unknown.
The stakes are bigger than one arrest. State Senator Julia Salazar said ICE appears to have significantly increased its presence in Bushwick recently, and at a rally outside the hospital two days later, Rep. Nydia Velázquez told the crowd, per BK Reader, “we fight for immigrants and we fight for immigration reform because it’s the only way we can make whole our communities.” The bigger questions are whether a hospital should ever be a place enforcement happens, and whether local cops can stand near it when it does.
For now, the dispute is unresolved and on the record. Mamdani’s office has an executive order requiring the NYPD to audit how it interacts with immigration agents, and the calls for an investigation into that night have not let up. Hospitals do not turn on your immigration status for emergency care. The audit and the investigation have not concluded. The video is not in dispute. Who is accountable for it still is.
Featured image: Courtesy bushwickdaily.com
