By COLE SINANIAN  | news@queensledger.com 

Five federal agents were spotted arresting a man outside a home on 47th Street between Broadway and 31st Ave at 5pm on Thursday. 

Eyewitness and local business owner Fares “Freddy” Zeideia was driving up 47th Street, on his way from his restaurant —  King of Falafel & Shawarma — to his home in East Elmhurst, when he saw the agents. 

“I knew they were ICE because it’s not NYPD, there was no police cars or anything, it was a regular private car,” Zeideia told the Queens Ledger. “And they wear masks. That’s the ICE trademark.” 

In a video posted to Zeideia’s Instagram, masked agents wearing hoodies, ski masks, jeans and vests marked “POLICE FEDERAL AGENT” can be seen guiding a handcuffed man. A different agent is wearing a vest marked “POLICE HSI.” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) responsible for investigative work. 

According to Zeideia, the agents drove a black Ford Explorer, seen in the video with the license plate LTE 6313. Zeideia said one of the agents went behind Zeideia’s vehicle, took a picture, then appeared to write down his license plate number. 

“I’m not going to be able to stop them, but I’ll try, you know?” Zeideia said. “I mean, I’ll try to let everybody know. The only thing that I knew that I could do, especially in Astoria, is to post it right away, to tell everybody.” 

Unlike local police, federal agents wear acorn-shaped badges instead of the traditional, shield-shaped police badge of the NYPD. New Yorkers can report confirmed ICE sightings to the city’s official ICE hotline at 229-304-8720. 

On February 6, Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed Executive Order 13, which took effect immediately and prohibits, among other things, “non-city” law enforcement from using City-owned garages and parking lots, and from entering city-owned properties without a warrant. 

Governor Kathy Hochul announced her Local Cops, Local Crimes Act on January 30, which would prohibit collaboration between federal immigration enforcement and local police statewide. Currently, 14 local law enforcement agencies across nine New York counties have signed 287g agreements — a contract that allows federal immigration enforcement to use local and state police to help with immigration reconnaissance and raids. NYPD has not signed a 287g and is therefore cannot legally collaborate with federal agents. Police in neighboring Nassau County, however, do have 287g agreements with ICE.  

Should Hochul’s legislation pass, all collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents would be prohibited throughout New York, which would join Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut on the list of states to have outright banned 287g agreements.