Providence (R.I.) Mayor Brett Smiley has officially banned Department of Homeland Security immigration officers, including ICE agents, from using city-owned public facilities.
Smiley, who has been the mayor of Providence since 2023, signed the executive order on Tuesday, January 20. The move came five days after ICE officers entered the state-owned Garrahy Judicial Complex. Masked immigration officers reportedly ran through the Garrahy Courthouse in pursuit of two young men, but no one was taken into custody.
The executive order prevents federal immigration officers from entering any official Providence-owned property — including parking lots, public schools, parks, and municipal buildings — while conducting enforcement operations.
“We’re taking clear action to affirm Providence’s values,” Smiley said on Tuesday. “We do not want — and will not allow — Providence’s public property to be used to execute what we see as unlawful immigration enforcement.”
Today, we took clear action to reaffirm Providence’s values.
I signed an Executive Order prohibiting the use of City-owned property for civil immigration enforcement activities, whether as a staging area, processing location or operational site.
Across the country, federal… pic.twitter.com/Vv55CyN71f
— Mayor Brett Smiley (@PVDMayor) January 20, 2026
Smiley explained that city employees will be able to hold a red sign reaffirming that ICE is prohibited from using city property as an enforcement staging site. Providence police have the power to vacate ICE agents who do not have a judicial warrant. Smiley also made it clear that Providence will comply if ICE does have a judicial warrant.
Private property owners are also allowed to use the sign on their businesses.
“There are families in Providence who are afraid,” Smiley said. “They are justified in their fear. There are kids in Providence who are not going to school. There are people in Providence not going to work for fear of enforcement actions like this. My responsibility is to them, not to anybody in Washington, D.C.”
Smiley also referred to the Trump administration as “reckless” and “erratic” in his press conference. Neither DHS nor ICE had publicly addressed Smiley’s executive order or his comments as of publication. Both agencies and their affiliated entities, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, have been extremely active on social media in recent months.
Thanks to President @realDonaldTrump, the handcuffs have been taken off ICE, allowing us to actually enforce federal immigration laws — unlike the previous administration. pic.twitter.com/AftLSnRNH0
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) January 21, 2026
A July 2024 census showed that 44.3% of Providence residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and 18.7% identified as multiracial. The population of Providence was estimated at nearly 200,000 at the time.
Noem announced on Tuesday that nearly three million illegal aliens have left the United States since Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. That reportedly includes an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations. Over 10,000 of those criminal illegal migrants have been apprehended in Minnesota.
In an X post on Tuesday, Noem reported that over 3,000 criminal illegal aliens have been arrested in Minnesota since Operation Metro Surge began in December. Minneapolis, St. Paul, and other areas in Minnesota remain the site of heated anti-ICE protests, and Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy military forces to Minneapolis.
