Police arrested a woman who climbed the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in a Fourth of July protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and she is due to appear in court in New York on Thursday morning.

The climber huddled at the base of the monument, about 30 meters above the ground, and engaged in a four-hour standoff with police before two New York police department officers climbed up to the base and apprehended her.

With the dramatic scene unfolding on live television, officers followed the woman around the base after she attempted to start climbing the statue.

She was named in reports by federal officials on Wednesday night as Therese Okoumou and had been taken into federal custody. The Statue of Liberty is a national monument administered, on its tiny island off the tip of Manhattan, by the National Park Service.

After an almost four-hour standoff at the base of the statue on a sweltering Independence Day in New York, police who had erected and scaled ladders to reach the protester, grabbed her round the waist.

She had become cornered against the part of the statue depicting Liberty’s robes, up against the statue’s sandalled foot. After trying to climb up further, or sidle around the foot, the protester failed and was trapped against the tall, copper structure. Police held her down until she appeared to allow a harness to be slung around her.

She eventually climbed down about eight meters to the monument’s observation point and was taken into custody.

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“She’s been taken into custody amicably, peacefully, without any injuries, or injuries to our officers, thank God. It’s all over now,” Sgt David Somma, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said. He added that prosecutors would determine any charges filed against the woman.

Visitors were evacuated from Liberty Island during the standoff on Wednesday afternoon. Okoumou is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, according to the office of the US attorney.

A federal official said the protester had told police she was protesting against the separation of immigrant children from parents who cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully.

Earlier in the day at least six protesters were arrested at the monument after hanging a banner from the pedestal emblazoned with a message about abolishing Ice, the US immigration enforcement agency.

Activists with the group Rise and Resist said they had hung the banner to protest against the Trump administration and its “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, which has caused families to be separated at the border.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Park police negotiate with a protester who climbed the pedestal of the the Statue of Liberty in New York on Wednesday. Photograph: Harry Slater/The Guardian

Okoumou appeared to be wearing a Rise and Resist T-shirt. The group initially said her action was not part of the earlier demonstration but later said the climber had been involved in that demonstration but her climb was not part of the group’s plan.

Rise and Resist (@riseandresistny) Rise and Resist planned a banner drop today at the Statue of Liberty. This action did not include the climber on the statue. Our action was completed earlier. While it was not part of our action, our first priority and concern is for the safety of the climber.

The other people taken into custody on Wednesday had unfurled a banner at the statue, which said “Abolish ICE”. Federal regulations prohibit hanging banners from the monument.

Ice, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a division of the Department of Homeland Security whose officers arrest and deport unauthorized immigrants inside the US, among other duties.

New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) Unidentified climber scales the Statue of Liberty as part of an apparent protest against @ICEgov https://t.co/l9CtEdBYU8 pic.twitter.com/P1OdGXG5ck

The Statue of Liberty has stood as a landmark since the late 19th century as a welcoming symbol to immigrants arriving in the US.

The statue has been a rallying point for anti-war and pro-immigration demonstrations in the past – usually for those gathering at the tip of Manhattan within sight of the iconic torch held aloft.

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But Liberty has also attracted protests against her very existence. Suffragettes protested against the original unveiling of the statue in 1886 because it was a female figure of freedom, while women did not have the right to vote. Protests related to the suffrage movement then became a regular Independence Day event.

Last summer the senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller sparked a furore over the president’s stated intention to try to move legal immigration to a “merit-based system”, when Miller questioned the relevance of the poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed at the base of the statue, which includes the celebrated lines: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

The Guardian then asked 21 poets to reimagine the poem as Trump would like to see it, which ended up including lines such as: “America, the door is closed now.”