Protest Held In Washington Square Park Following Immigration Raids

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- More protests were held Saturday in response to President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

A rally in support of immigrants was held at 2 p.m. in Washington Square Park.

Organizers said they're calling the rally to "challenge the criminalization of immigrants under the NYPD's current Broken Windows policy, before it worsens under Trump's far-right administration."

The rally comes after hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up in raids this week in New York and at least five other states, 1010 WINS reported.

The government said some known criminals were among the people who were detained.

ICE officials called the raids "routine."

Trump has promised to deport as many as 3 million undocumented immigrants who have criminal records.

Assemblymember Francisco P. Moya issued a statement in response to the raids, saying he was "outraged and emotionally sickened."

"These are exactly the kind of bullish tactics that we have feared the Trump administration would use. The men arrested had families and now their children will be left without a father, just so Trump can claim that he has fulfilled his campaign promise," the statement continued. "Far from prioritizing undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds, ICE agents cast a broad net by using checkpoints that captured any immigrants that happened to pass through them. That these raids were conducted in several sanctuary cities proves that they were not simply routine exercises, but rather directives from the oval office to crack down on opposition."

On Friday night, roughly 100 people gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Lower Manhattan for what organizers called an emergency protest.