❓WHAT HAPPENED: The New York City-based activist group DRUM—founded by Kazi Fouzia, a radical Bangladeshi Islamist-Maoist and top ally to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D)—is holding seminars to train activists in how to physically interfere with federal agents making immigration enforcement arrests.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: DRUM and its affiliate DRUM Beats, DRUM founder Kazi Fouzia, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, ICE Watch, the Manhattan Institute, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
📍WHEN & WHERE: ICE Watch training took place in Jackson Heights, Queens, on January 18, 2026.
💬KEY QUOTE: Portions of the seminar covered actions such as “striking,” “escaping holds,” and “community defense.”
🎯IMPACT: Several key organizers of DRUM’s pro-Mamdani get-out-the-vote operation have close ties to the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party—a radical socialist political party in Pakistan widely considered a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The New York City-based activist group DRUM—founded by Kazi Fouzia, a radical Bangladeshi Islamist-Maoist and top ally to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani—is holding seminars to train activists in how to physically interfere with federal agents making immigration enforcement arrests. In what the group calls a “de-arrest,” attendees of its seminar—with one recently held on January 18 in Jackson Heights, Queens—are trained in how to physically assault and remove a detainee from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Footage obtained by the Manhattan Institute shows a mask-wearing Asian woman instructing activists on what is best described as quasi-martial arts techniques that can be used to free an individual being restrained by law enforcement. Other portions of the seminar covered actions such as “striking,” “escaping holds,” and “community defense.” Notably, an advertisement for the January 18 event prominently states that attendees would be given free pepper spray and ICE Watch kits.
Here’s video from this DRUM co-sponsored event. The PowerPoint literally says “De-arrest Primer.”
Looks like my suspicions were right. This is the kind of street-tactics class where people pick up black bloc–style tricks to make cops’ lives hell, from “de-arrests” to physically… https://t.co/t605aZr8tl pic.twitter.com/8T509SAYFK
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) January 25, 2026
The National Pulse previously reported that DRUM and its affiliate, DRUM Beats, were critical components of Mamdani’s 2025 campaign’s ground game. Concerningly, several key organizers of DRUM’s pro-Mamdani get-out-the-vote operation have close ties to the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party—a radical socialist political party in Pakistan widely considered a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Additionally, Fouzia and DRUM are also linked to Shanghai-based billionaire Neville Roy Singham, identified by a number of American media outlets as a key figure in CCP influence operations.
Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot while attempting to run over an ICE agent earlier this month, took part in ICE Watch training provided through her son’s school. According to people close to Renee Good and her lesbian partner, Rebecca Good, in their Minneapolis community, she was involved with a group of activists aiming to “document and resist” immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
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