Evening Roundup: How to Confront ICE Officers, and the Perfect Film to Watch this Thanksgiving

[music]

Janae Pierre: How to confront ICE officers, and the indie film Pieces of April is said to be the perfect movie to watch this Thanksgiving. From WNYC, this is NYC NOW. I'm Janae Pierre. More than 150 staff members from the Adams administration are expected to lose their jobs when Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes office in January. A spokesperson for Mamdani confirmed 179 staffers will be terminated, but said the move is standard procedure for most incoming mayors.

The layoffs are expected to impact City Hall staff, not those employed at city agencies. The spokesperson says Mamdani's transition team is working to build a City Hall team that can deliver effectively on the incoming mayor's agenda. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams says longtime civil servants should not be the victims of political gamesmanship and called the decision a massive loss for the city.

[music]

Janae Pierre: New Yorkers across the boroughs are preparing for an unexpected crackdown by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city. President Donald Trump and Mayor-elect Mamdani had a surprisingly friendly meeting this past Friday. Just days before, officials in the Trump administration renewed their promises to "flood the zone with ICE officers in New York City". Here's Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Fox News last week.

Tom Homan: We're going to be coming to New York City. We're already there now. I mean, teams are there now, but we will increase the enforcement present in New York City, again, because they're a sanctuary city, and we know we have an issue there with public safety threats hitting the street every day.

Janae Pierre: WNYC's immigration reporter Arya Sundaram says that community organizers are spreading the word about people's rights when they're confronted by ICE officers. Arya talked with some of these advocates and says a few things are happening to prepare. First, community organizers are hosting mass trainings at centers across the city about what to do if you see ICE.

Arya Sundaram: I actually recently attended one of these trainings. It was called a deportation defense training in the Washington Heights area, and it was organized by a man who lives in the neighborhood. The trainers were two people from a mutual aid and advocacy network, and the trainers laid it out, what they called the five Ds of deportation defense.

Janae Pierre: The five Ds of deportation defense are document, disseminate, direct, delay, and disrupt. Arya says the training teaches observers to document what they're seeing by taking photos or videos and then disseminate that information.

Arya Sundaram: Send it to other people, usually to what's called "rapid response groups" run by mutual aid and community organizers that generally operate over signal.

Janae Pierre: Those groups will then dispatch allies to help respond to whatever's happening. After that, the trainers instruct people to intervene and delay the operation as much as possible to buy time for other people to show up, and finally, disrupt, which trainers say is the main goal, to try to stop ICE from arresting people.

Arya Sundaram: What that looks like, they said, depends on your comfort level, but they said it could involve putting your body on the line.

Janae Pierre: Aside from the training, Arya says.

Arya Sundaram: Volunteers are going out to people's homes and businesses with informational pamphlets and flyers to educate people about what to do if and when ICE shows up.

Janae Pierre: Arya followed canvassers working to educate businesses in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She met 71-year-old retiree Phyllis Arnold at a local bagel shop.

Phyllis Arnold: My name's Phyllis. I live in the neighborhoods, and we're here talking with businesses about how to stay safe from ICE.

Arya Sundaram: Once the manager came out from behind the counter, she started explaining that one of the most important things the business could do was to clearly mark private employee-only spaces.

Phyllis Arnold: When ICE comes in, they can come in like any other member of the public and order a bagel and cream cheese.

Arya Sundaram: She held up a sign that said employees only that the canvassers and other organizers were handing out to businesses.

Phyllis Arnold: In order for ICE to get through this, at least legally, they have to have a warrant.

Arya Sundaram: Generally, lawyers say that in order for ICE officers to enter private spaces, like your home or certain parts of a business, they generally need a judicial warrant or an occupant's permission. Often ICE officers will show what's called an administrative warrant, which is importantly very different than a judicial one. It has less legal authority, and is usually signed by an ICE officer. Phyllis then explained the difference between a judicial and administrative warrant, and the manager was really appreciative of her stopping by. He even offered to give her a coffee or a bagel before she left.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Arya Sundaram.

[music]

Janae Pierre: An indie film from the early 2000s is the perfect movie to watch this Thanksgiving. We'll share why after the break.

[music]

Janae Pierre: The Criterion Channel is streaming a collection of family reunion movies this month, including a low-budget indie classic from 2003 called Pieces of April. The movie takes place on Thanksgiving Day on the Lower East Side. WNYC's Ryan Kailath has more.

Ryan Kailath: As a movie guy, I'm a little ashamed to say I'd never seen Pieces of April. I'm loath to give too much of the plot away. You'll enjoy it more if you go in cold, but let me just say, this is now the movie I will watch every Thanksgiving, and I'm not alone there.

Peter Hedges: I do rewatch it every year. Thanksgiving's my favorite holiday, and this may be my favorite project I've been a part of.

Ryan Kailath: Peter Hedges, dad of the actor Lucas Hedges, by the way, wrote and directed Pieces of April. He says it's the only one of his works he revisits every year.

Peter Hedges: We made the film kind of against all odds in a very scrappy way, made with a lot of love.

Ryan Kailath: Hedges was a theater guy, still is, who moved to New York in the '80s to direct plays. He met a woman on the subway one day who told him how her first Thanksgiving in town, the oven went out, so she had to traipse around the building borrowing kitchens to cook in.

Peter Hedges: When I [unintelligible 00:06:22] and I heard that, I went, that is a great idea. I had that idea, and I made notes about that idea for years and then forgot about it.

Ryan Kailath: Hedges went on to great success beyond New York City theater. He wrote What's Eating Gilbert Grape and the screenplay for About a Boy, which got an Oscar nod. Career doors were opening, but meanwhile, life happened. His mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Hedges dropped things to help her. One day, she said--

Peter Hedges: "Peter, what are you making? What are you doing? Stop trying to find more doctors." I said, "Well, Mom, I don't feel like making anything. There's no point in making anything." She said, "Oh, no, it's the only point. Please make something."

Ryan Kailath: He went digging through his notes and found this file about a girl making a turkey.

Peter Hedges: About four pages into my notes, I said, well, why is it important on this Thanksgiving? My note said, because her mother has cancer. I just gasped, and I called her up and I said, "Mom, you're not going to believe this." She said-- I'm sorry. She said, "Oh, Peter, this is one you're supposed to make."

Ryan Kailath: This story might give you some clues about the plot of the movie. Hedges got to work, and the script was so powerful that stars lined up for parts. Katie Holmes signed on at the height of her Dawson's Creek fame, but the financing fell through. The project languished until Hedges said, screw it, and made the movie for $300,000. That's pocket change in Hollywood. As a result, Pieces of April kind of looks like a home video, if home videos had amazing scripts and major actors.

Peter Hedges: I kind of like the home movie vibe of the film. Feels very intimate, like you're peering in on life.

Ryan Kailath: Sean Hayes called in from the set of Will & Grace asking for a part. Derek Luke, who played Antoine Fisher, Oliver Platt, Isiah Whitlock. Patricia Clarkson got an Oscar nomination for this tiny, micro-budget, camcorder movie. They all worked for nothing, $200 a day, including the film's biggest star. Here's Katie Holmes on WNYC in 2003.

Katie Holmes: The script, we all were very moved by it. I think I read it three times in a row because I liked it so much. The chance to do something that means something to you, it doesn't come along that often. It's not really about the paycheck in situations like that.

Peter Hedges: The way we were able to make it, it was all just meant to be. It's just a reminder to me that you don't need all the bells and whistles. What you need is a few people who believe in it as much as you do, or maybe more. Then, if you're lucky, it finds a way to stick around.

Ryan Kailath: Pieces of April is the first movie Hedges ever directed, and it has stuck around, developed a cult following over the years, but the single most important member of the audience didn't get to see it.

Peter Hedges: My mom never saw the film. I think she would have loved it. My eulogy for my mom is Pieces of April.

Ryan Kailath: Criterion is streaming the movie this month, and I can't recommend enough to watch it with your family over Thanksgiving.

[music]

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Ryan Kailath. Before we go, a look at your forecast for the holiday weekend. Get ready for some blustery conditions over the next few days, including Thanksgiving Day and the busy travel period. The National Weather Service says gusts in the region could get up to 35 mph Thursday as a cold front moves in. Temperatures plus wind chills will be in the mid-30s. Those wind gusts could get up to 45 mph in parts of the area on Friday, with wind chills in the 30s and even the 20s overnight.

The weekend should warm up, though, with Sunday expected to get back into the 50s. Dress appropriately as temps fluctuate over the next few days.

[music]

Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening to NYC NOW from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

[music]

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.