Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was hit with a temporary restraining order this week, with Judge Lewis Kaplan giving the law enforcement agency specific rules regarding what to provide those held at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, N.Y.
According to a complaint filed last week, ICE has been holding people at the facility in concrete cells designed to hold people for short periods. It said these cells have no beds, showers, adequate medical support, or access to legal counsel.
“At 26 Fed, people are detained for extended periods of time, often for a week or more, sleeping on the concrete floor next to the toilet, in cells that are either freezing or oppressively hot, without medication, an opportunity to bathe, brush their teeth, or change their clothes,” said the complaint. “The detained individuals receive at most only two small meals a day. Many have fallen ill under these egregious conditions.”
This May, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other officials in President Donald Trump’s administration reportedly issued a quota for ICE of 3,000 detentions per day as part of the president’s goal to crack down on illegal immigration, The Guardian said. According to a DHS press release, 300,000 illegal aliens had been arrested from the start of the year (Trump took office in late January) through July 20. The Trump administration has also opened up a detention center called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida.
Kaplan outlined expectations for detention at 26 Federal Plaza in his order Tuesday, including requirements for space from toilets and clean bedding. He also prohibited ICE from detaining people in spaces with less than 50 square feet per person and required ICE to give detainees time and space to confidentially speak with their lawyers.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the order a “win for immigrants’ rights.”
“Today’s order sends a clear message: ICE cannot hold people in abusive conditions and deny them their Constitutional rights to due process and legal representation,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “We’ll continue to fight to ensure that peoples’ rights are upheld at 26 Federal Plaza and beyond.”
Bobby Hodgson, assistant legal director at the New York Civil Liberties Union said the group looks forward to “continuing this fight and stopping ICE's unconstitutional detention practices at 26 Federal Plaza for good.”