Around 25 people were arrested while protesting the president's immigration policy at Trump Tower Thursday, police say.
At least five people were carried out of the building by police after being cuffed with plastic ties, News 4 cameras captured. More demonstrators were arrested inside.
About 50 people with the activist group "Rise and Resist" had gone into the tower to protest Trump's stance on immigration, according to protester Ray Black.
Demonstrators held three banners over the public atrium, each reading: "No bans," "No wall" and "No raids." They also chanted, "No raids, no walls."
Black said they began planning the protests weeks ago. The group describes itself on Facebook as a "direct action group" formed in response to the election of President Trump.
"We don't believe the country is safer when people are banned purely on their faith," said Black.
The group consisting of students, teachers, doctors, professionals and retirees, ranging in age from the teens to the 70s, planned in advance for half of them to get arrested by sitting down and for the other half to act as support staff to get lawyers and post bail money if necessary.
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Protester Tim Murphy said, "You have an obligation to stand up. You have an obligation to non-violently disrupt business as usual and say, 'No, this is not right, this is not the country I want to live in, the direction we want to go in.'"
The NYPD and Secret Service have beefed up security at Trump Tower since the president's election, but the atrium remains open to the public.
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.
