Goldman Accuses Feds of Operating Illegal Immigration Jail in Lower Manhattan
Congressman Dan Goldman (who represents Lower Manhattan in Washington) is accusing the Trump administration of operating an illegal and unacknowledged detention facility at 26 Federal Plaza, the U.S. government office building in Lower Manhattan.
The New York field office of the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is located on the tenth floor of that building. In recent months, hundreds of immigrants who have appeared at 26 Federal Plaza, where the federal immigration court is also located, have been told that their cases were being dismissed. Immediately following dismissal, these immigrants have been intercepted outside the courtroom doors and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in plainclothes. Approximately 140 have been taken to the DHS office on the tenth floor and imprisoned in a large, makeshift holding facility, that has no beds, no showers, and two toilets without partitions.
“Law-abiding, nonviolent immigrants have been crammed into overcrowded rooms with no showers, inadequate food and water, and no way to contact their families to tell them where they are,” Mr. Goldman alleged in a press conference held outside 26 Federal Plaza on July 8. “It’s not just illegal; it’s un-American and inhumane.” He further alleged that DHS and ICE have withheld food, water, and health care from the immigrants detained there. He said that detainees have been forced to sleep on concrete floors, in some cases for weeks at a time, before being transferred to other federal holding facilities around the United States.
Mr. Goldman also accused the Trump administration of ignoring the authority of Congress to inspect federal detention facilities, saying, “I have tried several times to get into that detention center. As a member of Congress, I not only have a constitutional obligation, but I have a statutory right to go and conduct oversight over any Homeland Security facility that is being used to detain or otherwise house immigrants. They are illegally obstructing my ability to conduct oversight. And the reason why I want to conduct oversight is exactly because… they are hiding the terrible conditions that exist there, and they are hiding the terrible treatment of people who are trying to do things the right way.”
“These are law-abiding immigrants pursuing asylum, which is a lawful pathway to come into this country,” he continued. “It is a legal pathway to come into the United States. They are now literally arresting people who are coming to court, who are following the law.”
DHS justifies denying Mr. Goldman access to the tenth-floor facility at 26 Federal Plaza by arguing that it is not a detention center, but merely a “processing center” where immigrants are held before being transferred to an actual detention facility.
On July 22, the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization representing immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, released surreptitiously obtained video of conditions inside the tenth floor holding facility at 26 Federal Plaza, which portrayed conditions broadly consistent with Mr. Goldman’s allegations.
The Immigration Coalition (which accuses ICE and DHS of operating similar facilities at two other Lower Manhattan locations: 290 Broadway and 201 Varick Street) said in a statement, “ICE has repeatedly claimed that the tenth floor is not subject to Congressional oversight because it is classified as a holding center. However, this 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.”