A federal judge issued an emergency order on Tuesday requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately improve conditions at a Manhattan immigration detention facility. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups on behalf of detainees who described the facility as dirty, overcrowded and inhumane.
The temporary restraining order targets conditions at 26 Federal Plaza, a government building housing immigration courts and the FBI's New York field office. Detainees were being held in hold rooms, sleeping on cement floors with only thermal blankets and surrounded by open toilets causing horrible stenches.
Cellphone video recorded last month by a detainee showed about two dozen men crowded into one room, many lying on the floor without mattresses or padding. In court filings, detainees complained they had no soap, toothbrushes or other hygiene products, and were fed inedible food they described as "slop".
Court orders immediate changes
Judge Kaplan ordered ICE to allocate 50 square feet per person, reducing the largest hold room's capacity to about 15 people after detainees said 40 or more were being crammed in. The facility must be thoroughly cleaned three times daily and provided with adequate hygiene supplies.
The judge also ordered accommodations for confidential legal telephone calls after concerns that detainees couldn't communicate with lawyers. "My conclusion here is that there is a very serious threat of continuing irreparable injury, given the conditions that I've been told about," Kaplan said at Tuesday's hearing.
Government lawyer Jeffrey S Oestericher conceded that some complaints were valid. "I think we all agree that conditions at 26 Federal Plaza need to be humane, and we obviously share that belief," he said, adding that he agreed "inhumane conditions are not appropriate and should not be tolerated".
Detainees describe dehumanising treatment
Sergio Barco Mercado, the lawsuit's named plaintiff from Peru who sought asylum in 2022, said his holding room was "extremely crowded", cold and "smelled of sewage". The conditions worsened a tooth infection that swelled his face and altered his speech.
"We did not always get enough water," Barco Mercado said. "There was one guard who would sometimes hold a bottle of water up and people would wait to have him squirt some into our mouths, like we were animals."
Carlos Lopez Benitez, who fled Paraguay in 2023 seeking asylum, was arrested in July while leaving an immigration hearing. He said officers told him he'd remain in detention until a 2029 hearing on his asylum application.
Current facility conditions
In a sworn declaration, Nancy Zanello of ICE's New York City field office wrote that as of Monday, 24 people were held in the building's four hold rooms - well below the city fire marshal's 154-person capacity. Each room has at least one toilet and sink, and hygiene products are available, including soap, teeth cleaning wipes and feminine products, according to Zanello.
Only The Independent reports that detention peaked at 186 people on 5th June, with 81 people held for four or more days during the May-June period. One woman having her period could not use menstrual products because women in her room were given just two to divide up.
Facility at centre of deportation crackdown
The building has become an epicentre of Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies. Some detainees have been held far longer than the typical 72-hour period, according to lawyers representing them.
The lawsuit was filed by Make the Road New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union. They sought court intervention to end what lawyer Heather Gregorio called "inhumane and horrifying conditions".
New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who was arrested at the facility in June while trying to lock arms with someone being detained, called the decision "a much-needed rebuke of Trump's cruel immigration policies". Immigration advocates are calling for the facility to be permanently shut down rather than improved.
Sources used: "PA Media", "The Guardian", "The Independent" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
