Manhattan’s immigration courthouse is still in the ‘eye of the storm’ 10 months into ICE enforcement, legal experts say

Tuesday morning inside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan started the same way it had for the last 10 months, with over a dozen ICE agents stalking the hallways. With skin-tight masks covering their faces, they fanned out across the 12th floor.

According to legal experts who attend daily court hearings that immigrants are mandated to attend, a lot has changed in the weeks and months since the summer of 2025 — when the immigration crackdown was in full force. However, despite all that has changed, even more has stayed the same.

Benjamin Remy, senior coordinating attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, told amNewYork on March 3 that at the height of ICE’s crackdown inside the courthouse over the summer, there would be upwards of 30 detentions over the course of just several days. Today, he estimates there have been about 30 arrests in the first two months this year.

Despite the smaller number of people being taken into custody, Remy stated that the force with which they are taken from their families remains the same.

“The level of violence has really remained consistent. We just had a detention yesterday that, unprovoked, a man was just slammed against a wall,” Remy said. “We certainly haven’t seen a reduction in the level of violence, it’s more a reduction in the raw numbers. But when these arrests happen, they are still happening violently, they still are essentially disappearing folks into a stairwell, or into an elevator.”

Still, the numbers Remy referred to are only those on the 12th and 14th floors; a far larger number of people are also being arrested on the 5th Floor at ICE check-ins.

ICE agents stand in the hallways of 26 Federal Plaza.Photo by Dean Moses

In one moment on Tuesday, upwards of 15 masked agents followed a man down a corridor who instantly became agitated. They surrounded him, but he made a run for it, resulting in the ICE supervisor calling the horde off.

Remy spoke to this aspect, stating that while detentions have slowed, the fact that DHS are still allocating resources to 26 Federal Plaza itself shows they still have a lot of interest in the courthouse detentions.

“I don’t look at this as being out of the storm yet. I think we are in the eye of the storm. I would make sure we are all just very cautious of being overly optimistic about what this means going forward,” Remy stated, adding that he believes it is still just as imperative as ever to continue offering legal resources inside the courthouse.

Peter Melck Kuttel, detention coordinator for Father Fabian Arias’ Saint Peter’s Church, who also attends the courthouse daily, described the difference between June and July, and between February and March, as going from “chaos” to “organized chaos.”

“The tension is still palpable. The feeling of dread among people who show up is still very high. The presence of the agents has been ever consistent,” Kuttel said. “They are now worried about simply pretermission. That is the biggest thing in the courts, that is the thing that has consumed the entire process. So, while the dread of the agents for physical violence has somewhat normalized, if you can make that claim normalizing violence, the threat of the court is still ever high.”

The pretermission process essentially cuts off asylum applications, deporting immigrants to countries they do not even hail from with the promise they can continue their case from that country. This has helped do ICE’s job for them by severing respondents from the legal system. And even when asylum applications are submitted, they are scrutinized.

According to Alexander Carrión of the Carrión Law Firm, prior to the Trump administration, attorneys could file a basic application with a notation indicating that a detailed statement would follow — a practice that allowed additional time to gather critical information from their clients.

In 2026, however, that same approach can be deemed an incomplete filing. If every section of the application is not fully completed at the time of submission, the case risks being rejected outright or triggering a deportation order.

ICE agents pack into an elevator at 26 Federal Plaza.Photo by Dean Moses

​​”So every single box has to be checked off and filled in precisely where the government can take advantage of any clerical mistake and deny the entire application and render someone deported immediately,” Carrion said.

In cases like Nathaly Montana Andrade, which Carrion represents pro bono, under the current administration, even the most clear-cut asylum cases have become more difficult.

Kuttel also looked to remind the public that, despite claims to the contrary by the Trump administration, the immigrants detained inside 26 Federal Plaza are those without a criminal history. He believes the ICE presence at the courthouse is one part enforcement, one part intimidation.

“The majority, the vast majority, of people that are detained in Federal Plaza have no criminal history whatsoever. And so, even though the agents still detain those individuals, the goal is to scare everyone else. Just having a masked presence here is intimidation. They want people to deport, to take voluntary departure. They want people not to show up in court so a detainer can be put on them. This is what they want,” Kuttel said. “That increases the number of people who want to leave the country. That increases the number of detainers that they can put out to pump up their numbers.”