For months, U.S. Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat have been turned away by Homeland Security officials from repeated attempts to inspect areas of 26 Federal Plaza where immigrants were said to be detained. On Friday, they were finally let in.
Goldman and Espaillat finally gained entry into the previously restricted areas after a federal judge compelled ICE to do so after months of obstruction. Once inside, the Congress members found that no fewer than nine immigrants were being detained in a 10th-floor area without proper access to beds (they were sleeping on gym mats instead) and with shared bathroom facilities, even though men and women were among the detained.
In speaking with some of the detainees there, Goldman said he also found something in common with them: Not one of the detainees had a criminal record.
Indeed, many of the people detained at Federal Plaza over the last seven months, some of whom amNewYork has interviewed, were individuals abiding by court orders to attend hearings who have never been arrested for a violent crime.
That stands in sharp contrast to statements made by Trump administration officials such as Border Czar Tom Homan, who has falsely insisted that ICE agents are only targeting “the worst of the worst,” meaning non-law-abiding criminals.
Most New Yorkers want violent criminals off our streets and out of our society, but if ICE isn’t getting “the worst of the worst,” what then are they doing? We again ask: How does arresting thousands of law-abiding immigrants for minor infractions or paperwork errors “make America great again?”
ICE’s continued operations at Federal Plaza — its masked agents roughly arresting people and assaulting journalists and advocates; its detainment of non-violent people in unfit quarters — bring shame upon this country and city. They act in our name, and it must come to an end.
ICE agents must remove the masks and clearly identify themselves to whoever they encounter. They must only target for arrest and deportation those individuals with violent criminal records. They must leave alone nonviolent immigrants who are otherwise abiding by the law and making positive contributions to our society.
Should ICE and Homeland Security refuse to stand down, it is up to Goldman and Espaillat, as members of Congress, to do everything in their power to stop them. And it is up to our city and state officials to double down on their ongoing efforts to protect New York’s immigrant community under state and city regulations — and fight ICE with every legal tool at its disposal.
