An immigration enforcement raid on Manhattan’s Canal Street was met by droves of angry New Yorkers Tuesday night, with one person in particular emerging afterward as an unlikely protagonist: “polka-dot dress lady.”
Photos and videos from the scene show the woman, wearing a demure blue and white polka-dot dress and blue blazer, staring down an armored police vehicle while calmly flipping double birds, purse slung over her left arm.
An unidentified person now known as “polka dot dress lady” shows her displeasure with ICE’s show of force in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
In another video, the unidentified woman can be seen tussling with a man wearing a tactical vest before stepping back to adjust her purse. A different angle appears to show her intervening in that instance to calm tensions between the vest-wearing man and a third protester.
A separate photo shows her flipping the bird once more as the same man, presumably an ICE officer, appears to grimace in resignation and walk in the opposite direction…