New York Mural Depicts ICE Agents Apprehending the Statue of Liberty

Outside an entrance to the Second Avenue subway station in Manhattan’s East Village, commuters and passersby are confronted with an artwork portraying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detaining the Statue of Liberty. Longtime New York City street artist Doug Groupp, who uses the moniker Clown Soldier, created “Attack on Liberty” on November 26. The black and white spray-painted work binds immigration crackdowns to an erosion of civil liberties more broadly. Reached by Hyperallergic, Groupp said he was paid $120 to create the work, but declined to state by whom.

“It visualizes a fear shared by millions: that the values we claim to stand for — justice, sanctuary, and freedom — are being detained and carried off in plain sight,” Groupp said in a statement. “It’s a reminder that freedom is never guaranteed; it must be defended.”

Groupp’s scene of ICE arresting the Statue of Liberty punctuates a particularly notorious year in United States immigration history, one defined by the arrest of a pro-Palestinian student protester and green card holder, Mahmoud Khalil; the deportation of hundreds of men to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador; and the targeting of immigrants with no criminal history.

The subway entrance artwork continues a renewed use of the Statue of Liberty as an anti-Trump symbol. In a Northern French town earlier this year, Dutch street artist Judith de Leeuw portrayed a massive Statue of Liberty in a gesture of shame as a commentary against the Trump administration’s deportation policies. In the spring, the White House rebuked a comment by a French politician calling for the repatriation of the sculpture, which has occupied the New York harbor since 1886.

Groupp’s piece echoes guerrilla artworks by the collective Vjaybombs, which projected portrayals of ICE agents arresting Jesus in Los Angeles earlier this fall.

In a statement to Hyperallergic, Groupp said that his work has not always been overtly political but that “recent events” have pushed him to make it so. He added that he drew inspiration for this design from the work of Keith Haring, who transformed the subway system into a canvas for political chalk art calling attention to issues including the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“After sketching the image across several digital platforms, I realized that referencing Keith Haring’s visual economy made the message stronger,” Groupp said. “Reducing the imagery to its simplest form—almost like a subway drawing—allowed the idea to speak more forcefully. Haring’s work was an act of defiance in itself: immediate, public, and unapologetically provocative. That spirit felt essential to the message.”

“Attack on Liberty” has been vandalized twice, Groupp said. Images shared with Hyperallergic show the work tagged with “communist” and “dead.” Groupp has been regularly touching up the piece.

Groupp said he plans to offer prints for sale through his Instagram with proceeds directed toward the New York Immigration Coalition’s Emergency Justice Fund. The work will remain on view through January.