The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) says a newly released video shows inhumane conditions inside a United States (US) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Centre at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan.
“Today, newly released video shows what immigrant New Yorkers have been telling their families and attorneys for months: the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza is an ICE detention facility,” said NYIC on Wednesday. “ICE has repeatedly claimed that the 10th floor is not subject to Congressional oversight because it is classified as a holding center.”
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US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin insisted that “26 federal plaza is not a detention center. It is a federal building with an ICE law enforcement office inside of it”.
But NYIC said the video backs up what has been widely communicated by people inside. “They are detained there for days and weeks at a time without showers, medication or a change of clothes, sleeping on the floor, and with minimal food and outside contact.”
McLaughlin has also said, “Any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions is categorically false.”
However, NYIC said the video shows that Caribbean and other immigrants detained on the 10th floor are being held in crowded and unsanitary conditions.
NYIC said that, “On May 20, federal agents began making arrests and disappearing people after they left their immigration court cases at 26 Federal Plaza, 290 Broadway, and 201 Varick Street.”
Starting on June 8, NYIC said US Congress members Nydia Velazquez, Adriano Espaillat, Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler have been “categorically denied their legal authority to view the detention facility on multiple attempted visits”.
NYIC said all members of Congress have the authority to “conduct unannounced inspections of detention facilities holding individuals in federal immigration custody”, under 2019’s Congressional Public Law 116-93, Sec 405 (this was further codified by 2025’s Congressional Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, Sec 527a).
“All New Yorkers should be able to attend their immigration court cases without being separated from their families simply because they followed the process,” Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s president and chief executive officer, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). “ICE is kidnapping so many people from New York’s immigration courts that they had to create a new detention facility on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza.”
“But instead of sharing the truth with the public, ICE has skirted accountability by consistently lying about what’s happening on the 10th floor, and breaking the law by not allowing Congress members to view the conditions,” he added. “New Yorkers deserve accountability and justice at 26 Federal Plaza and must be able to safely attend their court proceedings without fear of being detained and disappeared.”
“The 10th floor detention facility must be shut down immediately, and regularly inspected to ensure that ICE adheres to federal guidelines as mandated by law,” Awawdeh demanded.
Likewise, Velázquez said the 10th floor at 26 Federal Plaza has become “the epicenter of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign in New York City”.
“Since May, ICE has been snatching New Yorkers off the streets and out of immigration court and taking them to this floor,” she said. “They’ve claimed it’s not a detention facility, just a ‘processing center’, to block members of Congress from exercising our legal right to conduct oversight.”
“They’ve also dismissed repeated reports of overcrowding and inhumane conditions,” Velázquez added. “This video confirms what we’ve feared all along: ICE has been lying and locking us out to hide what’s happening inside.”
“There is no more excuse. ICE must grant members of Congress immediate access to the 10th floor and shut this facility down,” the congresswoman added. CMC
