Nine unmarked federal vans quietly slipped into a downtown Manhattan garage. They did not leave quietly.
After immigration-rights activists descended on a Morton Street lot last week with cowbells, chants and a banner proclaiming “ICE parks here,” the private operator pulled the vehicles from the facility. Demonstrators briefly blocked the street, and neighbors say just seeing the vans in a residential pocket of the West Side has rattled people who already feel on edge about immigration enforcement in the city. The showdown has quickly folded into a larger fight over where federal enforcement vehicles sit, idle, in New York and how much the public gets to know about those arrangements.
In a statement to Gothamist, Metropolis spokesperson Lizzy Levitan said the company confirmed the vans were U.S. government property and “took immediate action” once it learned they were parked at the Morton Street garage. Gothamist also reported that ICE did not respond to its requests for comment.
Pier 40 and the bigger picture
Activists say at least one of the vans had also been spotted at Pier 40, where the Hudson River Park Trust has already said it will not renew a long-running parking deal with federal agencies when that agreement expires on June 30. Sludge reported that the Trust’s contract dates back to the early 2000s and was last renewed in 2021, and a coalition of elected officials publicly pushed the Trust to cut ties sooner, according to the New York State Senate.
ICE's hunt for parking
The federal government is looking for far more than a handful of spaces. The Department of Homeland Security’s Acquisition Planning Forecast System shows ICE’s New York field office publicly seeking proposals for up to 150 reserved indoor spots for SUVs, mid-size vans and mini-buses within a quarter-mile of 201 Varick Street, with an estimated cost between $5 million and $10 million and an anticipated award in the third quarter of the fiscal year. The listing calls for 24/7 access, camera coverage and electronic key-card controls, a security wish list that helps explain why activists have been canvassing garages across the neighborhood; see the DHS procurement notice for the full specifications.
Activists press Metropolis
Local organizers with Chelsea Neighbors United emailed Metropolis CEO Alexander Israel after the Morton Street discovery, urging the company to ban federal enforcement vehicles at that lot and to reject similar parking arrangements at its other locations. In its coverage of the May 14 demonstration, Gothamist described protesters using cowbells and hand-painted signs to draw attention to the fleet, and quoted neighborhood organizers who said seeing ICE vans parked near homes and workplaces has deepened residents’ anxieties.
Metropolis and the politics of parking
Metropolis has cast itself as a national player in parking infrastructure and says it has raised more than $1.6 billion in financing, per the Metropolis newsroom. That scale has turned its contracts into a political pressure point: a bill in Albany would require vendors to disclose ICE contracts and could block firms from future state or city work if they hide those ties, as outlined in a report that puts ICE-linked vendors on notice, while elected officials continue to scrutinize public agencies over older agreements with federal enforcement.
For now, Metropolis says the nine vans were removed from the Morton Street garage and has told neighbors it acted quickly once the situation came to light. Activists say they plan to keep checking garages across the city, and lawmakers insist contract rules and transparency will stay on the agenda. With the Hudson River Park Trust’s Pier 40 deal set to lapse at the end of June and ICE’s procurement notice still active, where those vans end up sitting in Manhattan looks likely to remain a neighborhood flashpoint well into the summer.
