Anti-ICE agitators busted at NYC protest include Fordham grad student, standup comic, Columbia student editor

The agitators busted at an anti-ICE protest in Lower Manhattan earlier this weekend include a Fordham University graduate assistant, a standup comic and an editor at Columbia University’s student magazine, The Post can reveal.

Two of the anti-ICE protesters are also accused of assaulting NYPD cops who responded to the mayhem, according to police and prosecutors. 

Natalia Arai, 37 — a makeup artist and masters of social work student at Fordham University, according to her social media — kicked a garbage can at a cop when the NYPD warned the 150-strong crowd to stop blocking traffic at Canal Street and Broadway Saturday afternoon, according to police and a criminal complaint. 

The trash bin hit the officer in the left leg and he was treated for a cut and pain, cops said. 

She was charged with second-degree assault and resisting arrest, police said. 

According to her LinkedIn, she is also a part-time social work fellow in New York Public Schools, where she “addresses conflict through healing-centered dialogue.”

She did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Asif Ali, 26, faces the same felony assault charge for allegedly pushing a wooden pallet into a cop’s foot at Centre and Hester streets, causing pain and bruising, according to the complaint filed against him. 

Eli Sairs, 40, a standup comic, was busted for allegedly throwing a garbage bag throwing hard objects at cops at Centre and Howard streets – as multiple officers and civilians gathered in the area, prosecutors said.

Sairs was previously busted in 2021 during a wild Upper East Side protest over the police shooting death of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, The Post reported at the time. 

That mayhem drew an impassioned response from then-NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who demanded that the rioters be locked up. 

“I’m past asking,” Shea told reporters at the time.

“I’m actually demanding at this point. They need to go to jail. They need to be held accountable.”

Symmes Cannon, 20, was arrested when she allegedly climbed a parking garage that was closed off to the public with a chain-link fence at Centre and Hester streets, prosecutors said. 

Cannon was previously arrested last year during protests at Columbia and Barnard universities,  according to The Washington Free Beacon. 

She was previously listed as the deputy editor of the Columbia Spectator’s weekly magazine, The Eye, but that page appears to have been removed, the outlet reported. 

All four pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance, records show.

In total, 18 people were taken into custody during the demonstration – with seven of them released with criminal court summonses, law enforcement sources said. 

Eleven were formally arrested – including Arai, Ali, Sairs, Cannon – with the seven remaining issued desk appearance tickets to return to court at a later date, the sources said.