Federal agents continued to arrest immigrants attending mandatory court hearings in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, as alleged leaked footage from ICE detention appears to show immigrants being kept at the facility in squalid conditions.
The leaked video — taken from the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, according to the New York Immigration Coalition — appeared to show cramped conditions with people sleeping on the ground in dirty, unwashed clothes. Some individuals covered their faces with shirts, seemingly to block the beaming lights.
The video further showed the people located near a shared toilet with no privacy.
Revelations from the video added to the unease felt among those advocating for migrants as they waded through murky legal proceedings on the 12th and 14th floors of 26 Federal Plaza.
US Rep. Adriano Espaillat expressed outrage over what the video showed, saying the conditions were “a blatant violation of human rights and due process.”
“I was deeply alarmed by recently uncovered video footage showing immigrants detained by ICE forced to sleep on filthy floors, share a single bathroom among nearly 30 people, and endure inhumane treatment,” Espaillat said. “The environment in which these individuals are being forced to remain is indicative of the Trump administration’s sentiment towards immigrants as disposable and serves as further justification to continue to demand oversight and accountability at these facilities. This video demonstrates a moral and legal failure that demands immediate action.”
Still, the outrage did very little to stall ICE activity mere floors from where people are being held against their will.
Federal agents lined both the 12th and 14th floors, some of them clutching paperwork with the faces of those intended to add to the growing numbers already in their custody. Parents hugged their children closely as they passed by the armed federal agents — many of whom, yet again, concealed their faces with masks.
A number of people, some being escorted by advocates, were pounced upon by agents after their court hearings and rushed away into a nearby stairwell.
Several of those taken appeared visibly shaken, their eyes welling up. Others were simply confused, as they struggled to communicate due to a language barrier. Some of those escorted away initially were ultimately released, with one stating in Spanish that he was let go because they were looking for someone else.
According to some workers inside the building, more eligible immigrants are looking to attend their court hearings virtually, hoping to avoid the agents. A slew of notices posted around the building even stated that some judges would be seeing virtual cases through September.
Queens City Council Member Julie Won observed court hearings at Federal Plaza on Tuesday. She said she was shocked by the arrests and the images coming out of the 10th floor.
“New York City is a sanctuary city. We don’t have the space to hold this amount of detainees that they’re illegally holding because they did not get due process legally. This is lawlessness, so I’m not surprised that they have to hold them on the 10th floor sleeping like sardines,” Won said. “We don’t have the infrastructure to follow these orders from Donald Trump to arrest and detain all these people. It’s unfathomable.”
This comes one day after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan visited New York where they not only pledged to flood the Big Apple with more ICE but also defended the taking of immigrants inside the courts.
“They may not have a criminal conviction, but they need to be detained. They need to be arrested and taken off the streets of this country,” Homan said. “Being in the country illegally is not illegal anymore? You need to commit a murder to be deported?”
Mayor Adams responds to leaked video
During an one-on-one interview with amNewYork Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams responded to the leaked video pledging to convene with federal government to address conditions shown in the video.
“This is the first time I saw it, and we’re going to reach out, because the building is housed in our city, we’re going to reach out but what we have to be very clear on I’m in charge of city jails, state jails, the governor’s in charge of them. Our federal lawmakers have a responsibility, ” Adams said. “Everyone is asking: ‘Mayor, what are you doing?’ No, we need to be asking, ‘What level of government is responsible for the entities, what are they doing?’ I’m going to do my part to inquire about and do things that we could do to help the conditions. If the conditions are actually deplorable, we’re going to do our part. But we have federal elected officials; that’s their job. The mayor’s job is not to do everything in the country. You know, it’s not my job to secure our borders. Federal officials are supposed to do that. So, there’s a federal building that is not being held to the standards that is supposed to I will encourage my federal authorities to do so.”
