Congressman Confronts Immigration Agents During Lower Manhattan Roundup
On May 29, Congressman Dan Goldman, who represents Lower Manhattan in Washington, was between meetings at his Manhattan office in the federal building at 290 Broadway when he was urged by his staff to stop by the immigration court located in the same building. There, he observed an elaborate legal charade. One immigrant after another, responding to orders to appear in court, heard government lawyers submit motions to the presiding judge asking to dismiss their cases, which consisted mostly of applications for asylum. Most seemed not to realize that the dismissal of their cases meant they were no longer protected by a law that bans deportations while asylum applications are pending.
Outside the courtroom door, these immigrants were surveilled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in plainclothes, who radioed to a team in the lobby of 290 Broadway, where more plainclothes law enforcement personnel were waiting, with a checklist (including photos) of each immigrant scheduled to appear in court that day.
As the immigrants attempted to exit the building, the second team of agents, mostly wearing masks, arrested each one, taking advantage of the fact that they no longer had asylum claims under review. This meant that they could be put into a process known as “expedited removal,” which is tantamount to immediate deportation.
“Today, I confronted masked ICE officers after they detained multiple immigrants in the lobby of the federal building that also contains my Manhattan district office,” Mr. Goldman said in a hastily called press conference in front of 290 Broadway, a few minutes later. “These officers were carrying printed-out papers with immigrants’ names and faces, wearing masks, and attempting to intimidate reporters on site – all while avoiding questions I asked them as a duly elected member of Congress carrying out my oversight responsibilities, as a member of the Homeland Security Committee.” (The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, oversees ICE.)
“This is Gestapo-like behavior,” Mr. Goldman said. “Plain-clothed officers, wearing masks, are terrorizing immigrants who are doing the right thing by going to court, following up on their immigration proceedings, and trying to come into this country lawfully, through asylum. DHS is exploiting a procedural technicality to fast-track deportations.”
Before Mr. Goldman was elected to Congress, he recalled, “I was a federal prosecutor for ten years. I worked with DHS. I worked with ICE agents. I have never seen any plainclothes officer wearing a mask. And, when I asked them, ‘Why are you wearing a mask?’ one person told me, ‘because it’s cold.’ I asked him if he would testify to that under oath. He walked away and wouldn’t respond to me. Another person admitted that they were wearing masks so that they are not caught on video.”
He continued, “my question to them is: ‘if what you are doing is legitimate, is lawful, is totally aboveboard, why do you need to cover your face?’ Law enforcement officers do not cover their faces. And in fact, the Trump administration is cracking down on universities for allowing protesters to wear masks. So, apparently, it is not okay to wear a mask if you are protesting the government, but it is okay if you are the government.”
“Ultimately, what this comes down to is not anything having to do with the border,” he argued. “It has nothing having to do with our immigration system. It is simply an effort by the Trump administration to remove as many foreigners as possible from this country, so that they can return to the 1950s, under this Great Replacement Theory, and go back to a world of white supremacism that does not include immigrants trying to come to this country to seek a better life.”
This was a reference to a racist conspiracy theory about “white extinction” that, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “falsely asserts there is an active, ongoing and covert effort to replace white populations in current white-majority countries.” It has been cited as inspiration by, among others, the perpetrators of the mass shootings in Buffalo (2022), El Paso (2019), and Pittsburgh (2018).
“It hits especially home for me,” Mr. Goldman said. “As a Jew, I’m very familiar with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, and other forms of secret law enforcement in Russia and elsewhere, that used fear and intimidation, under the cover of night, under the cover of masks, to terrorize people that they did not like.”
As Mr. Goldman confronted the team of plainclothes ICE agents in the lobby of 290 Broadway, one of them ordered bystanders to stop videotaping the incident. “There were a couple of reporters here witnessing it” Mr. Goldman said. “One of the ICE agents started yelling at the reporter to put the phone away, to stop videotaping, making the argument that it’s federal building and you’re not allowed to videotape. This is flatly not the case, simply not true. You’re allowed to videotape in the public space in the federal building. You can’t videotape in a courtroom, but in the lobby, you are allowed to videotape.”
“They’re trying to do this the cover of darkness, in secret as much as possible,” Mr. Goldman concluded. “And the question for every American to ask is, ‘why?’ Why are they covering their faces? Why are they trying to avoid being videotaped?”
A spokesman for DHS did not respond to a request for comment.