Two self-important protestors who oppose ICE caused a traffic jam in New York City. They showed no sympathy as a distressed mother asked them to move so she could go to work.

Footage captured by Turning Point USA reporter Savanah Hernandez shows the heated encounter between the young mother and the two activists.

The woman, who stepped out of her car to confront the protestors on the street, pleaded with them to clear the way, explaining how crucial it was for her to get to work to support her child.

‘And these people are having their children taken and their parents taken,’ one protester interrupts.

Despite the mother’s heartfelt pleas, asking about the fate of her child if she lost her job, the protestor callously dismissed her, saying, ‘I cannot help you,’ and talking over her.

The mother reiterates that they ‘can if they would just move’, but the protester doubles down: ‘No we can’t. We are not going to.’

‘How is this a peaceful protest? There’s nothing peaceful,’ the mother begs again, but the argumentative activist snappily hits back: ‘This is peace. This is peace.’ 

Hernandez, who was covering the NYC demonstration, even confronted the duo as they ignored the mother’s pleas.

‘How do y’all as white people feel about stopping a black woman from going to work?’ the journalist asked.

‘Oh no. not work,’ the male protester, who stood by his fellow activist’s side as she berated the mother, said.

Hernandez doubled down and asked if he ‘cared about stopping a black woman from going to work’, but the protester smirked and admitted ‘no’.

The footage was captured at just one of many protests against immigration enforcement raids have sprung up across the US this week. 

The chaos began on Friday when anti-ICE protesters seized on a handful of police raids across Los Angeles. 

The demonstrations in LA quickly turned into riots that saw downtown businesses looted and vehicles set ablaze.

Marchers from Seattle and Austin to Chicago and DC have taken to the streets chanting slogans, carrying signs against ICE and snarling traffic through downtown avenues and outside federal offices. 

While many have been peaceful, some have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds.

Activists are planning more and even larger demonstrations in the coming days, with ‘No Kings’ events across the country on Saturday to coincide with President Donald Trump’s planned military parade through Washington.

The Trump administration said it would continue its program of raids and deportations despite the protests.

‘ICE will continue to enforce the law,’ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted Tuesday on social media.

The Governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, said he will deploy the National Guard this week, ahead of planned protests after protesters and police in Austin clashed on Monday.

Trump’s extraordinary measures of sending National Guard and Marines to quell protests in Los Angeles has sparked a national debate on the use of military on US soil and pitted the Republican president against California’s Democrat governor.

‘This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk. That’s when the downward spiral began,’ California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a video address on Tuesday.

‘He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety. … Democracy is under assault.’

Newsom, widely seen as preparing for a presidential run in 2028, and the state of California sued Trump and the Defense Department on Monday, seeking to block the deployment of federal troops. 

Trump in turn has suggested Newsom should be arrested.

Hundreds of US Marines arrived in the LA area on Tuesday under orders from Trump, after he also ordered the deployment of 4,000 National Guard to the city. 

Marines and National Guard are to be used in the protection of government personnel and buildings and not in police action.

LA Mayor Karen Bass said the deployments were not necessary as police could manage the protest, the majority of which have been peaceful, and limited to about five streets.

However, due to looting and violence at night she imposed a curfew over one square mile of the city’s downtown, starting Tuesday night. The curfew will last several days.

Police said multiple groups stayed on the streets in some areas despite the curfew and ‘mass arrests’ were initiated. 

Police earlier said that 197 people had already been arrested on Tuesday – more than double the total number of arrests to date.

Democratic leaders raised concerns over a national crisis in what has become the most intense flashpoint yet in the Trump administration’s efforts to deport migrants living in the country illegally, and then crack down on opponents who take to the streets in protest.

Trump, voted back into office last year largely for his promise to deport undocumented immigrants, used a speech honoring soldiers on Tuesday to defend his decision.

He told troops at the army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina: ‘Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness.’

‘What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags,’ Trump said, adding his administration would ‘liberate Los Angeles.’

Demonstrators have waved the flags of Mexico and other countries in solidarity for the migrants rounded up in a series of intensifying raids.

Homeland Security said on Monday its ICE division had arrested 2,000 immigration offenders per day recently, far above the 311 daily average in fiscal year 2024 under former President Joe Biden.

Protests have also taken place in other cities including New York, Atlanta and Chicago, where demonstrators shouted at and scuffled with officers. 

Some protesters climbed onto the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza, while others chanted that ICE should be abolished.

Texas Governor Abbott said late on Tuesday that he will deploy the National Guard, which ‘will use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order’.

‘Texas National Guard will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order. Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest,’ Abbott posted on X.

South Texas organizations are expected to hold anti-ICE rallies on Wednesday and Saturday, CNN reported local media as saying.

About 700 Marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 30 miles  south of Los Angeles on Tuesday, awaiting deployment to specific locations.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state was concerned about allowing federal troops to protect personnel, saying there was a risk that could violate an 1878 law that generally forbids the US military, including the National Guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.

‘Protecting personnel likely means accompanying ICE agents into communities and neighborhoods, and protecting functions could mean protecting the ICE function of enforcing the immigration law,’ Bonta said.

ICE on Tuesday posted photos on X of National Guard troops accompanying ICE officers on an immigration raid. 

Trump administration officials have vowed to redouble the immigration raids in response to the street protests.

The last time the military was used for direct police action under the Insurrection Act was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked President George H.W. Bush to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King.