A federal judge ordered Trump administration to improve immediately on Tuesday New York Urban immigrants possess facilities and act on complaints of imprisonment of immigrants saying it is dirty, smelly and overcrowded.
Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in a lawsuit filed on behalf of detainees that a temporary restraining order was issued requiring immigration and customs enforcement to limit capacity, ensure cleanliness and provide sleep pads in the so-called federal Plaza at 26 Federal Plaza, the Manhattan government building.
Mobile video recorded by detainees last month showed about twenty people crowded in one of the four holding rooms in the building, many lying on the floor with hot blankets on it but without mattresses or fillings.
In court documents, detainees complained that they did not have soap, toothbrush or other sanitary products. They said they were fed unavailable “ramps” and endured the “terrible stench” of sweat, urine and feces, partly because of the open toilets in the room. The lawsuit says a woman with periods cannot use menstruation products because there are only two women in her room who are split.
Kaplan ordered immigration officials to allocate 50 square feet of feet per person — the largest holding room capacity narrowed down by about 15 people in the detainees. In the detainees, 40 or more people were trapped. The building, home to the Immigration Court and the FBI’s New York Field Office, has become Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The judge ordered the government to thoroughly clean the cells every day and provide sufficient supply of sanitary products. Kaplan addressed concerns that detainees cannot communicate with lawyers, ordering the government to provide accommodation for confidential legal phone calls.
“My conclusion here is that, given the conditions I have been told, there is a very serious threat to the ongoing irreparable harm,” Kaplan said at a hearing on Tuesday.
Government attorney Jeffrey S Oestericher said: “I think we all agree that the conditions on 26 Federal Square must be humane, and we obviously share that belief.
The lawsuit was filed by an immigration rights group, making New York Highway, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union seek court intervention to end what plaintiff attorney Heather Gregorio called “inhuman and terror conditions.”
Gregorio said some detainees held on 26 federal squares far exceeding the 72-hour norm.
Murad Wawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Alliance, welcomed Kaplan’s ruling as “forward”, but said the facility “must be permanently closed.”
New York City auditor Brad Lander, arrested in June at 26 Federal Plaza after trying to lock up weapons with human authorities, said the decision “is a desperate need to be condemned by Trump’s cruel immigration policy.”
In the swearing-in statement, Nancy Zanello of the ICE New York City Office of Law Enforcement and Evacuation Operations wrote that as of Monday, there were 24 people in the building’s four holding rooms, a distance from the city’s fire marshal’s 154-person hat.
Zanello said each room has at least one toilet and sink, allowing access to sanitary products, including soap, cleaning wipes and women’s products.
The lawsuit, called plaintiff Sergio Barco Mercado, said in court documents that he was detained for two days last week at 26 Federal Plaza while leaving the Immigration Court hearing.
Peruvian native Barco Mercado said he sought asylum in the U.S. in 2022, saying his hugging room was “extremely crowded”, cold and “smelling out the sludge”, which exacerbated the dental infection, swelling his face and changing his speech.
“We don’t always get enough water,” Barco Mercado said. “There is a guard who sometimes picks up a bottle of water and people will wait for him to be like ours, just like in our mouths.”
Another detainee, Carlos Lopez Benitez, said he fled the violence in Paraguay in 2023 and sought asylum in the United States when he was arrested in July while leaving the immigration hearing. He said officials told him he would be detained until a 2029 hearing on asylum application.
Lopez Benitez said an officer showed him a picture of his arrested cell phone and laughed at him for crying. In his cell, officers blew up the air conditioner and radiated meals that “look like dog food.”
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