Footage shows people sleeping on floor next to toilets in facility that agency says is not a detention site<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two videos have surfaced shedding light on what is happening behind closed doors at a New York federal building where people are being confined after being seized by officers on their way out of immigration court on the 12th floor, with the footage offering a rare look inside a controversial and closely guarded space that is part of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s anti-immigration<\/a> crackdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The filming, shared by the New York Immigration Coalition<\/a> (NYIC), captures one of several rooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, on the building\u2019s 10th floor, where accounts have emerged of people being detained in wholly unsuitable conditions with few basic provisions, but there had been no public access to direct evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The footage in question shows about two dozen men confined in bare rooms, some lying on the floor wrapped in aluminum emergency blankets while others sit on benches, the City reported<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One clip shows two toilets just feet away from where people sleep, separated by a low wall. The video was secretly recorded by a man who had been detained after an immigration court appearance last week, according to the City, which first obtained the footage from the NYIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man who filmed the scenes had reportedly managed to have a phone in his possession despite the usual protocol by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) of confiscating personal items at arrest. Reports of people being held for protracted periods in deprived conditions in the Manhattan building have followed weeks of controversy about Ice officers turning up at immigration courts across the country, where they are usually not present, and apprehending people. The footage shows people held in the same building as one of the main immigration courts in New York<\/a> City. It was sent to state assembly member Catalina Cruz\u2019s office. Until now, photos or videos from the 10th floor have not emerged in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe American dream,\u201d the unseen and unnamed detainee says as he films. \u201cImmigration, 26 Federal Plaza.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a separate audio message also shared with the City , the same man adds: \u201cThey haven\u2019t given us food, they haven\u2019t given us medicine. We\u2019re cold. There are people who\u2019ve been here for 10, 15 days inside. We\u2019re just waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concerns about what goes on inside the federal building had been growing. Advocates, attorneys and immigrants themselves have described the 10th floor as overcrowded, with no beds, showers, or adequate access to food or healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIce is kidnapping so many people from New York\u2019s 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\u2019s happening on the 10th floor, and breaking the law by not allowing Congress members to view the conditions,\u201d said Murad Awawdeh, president of the NYIC, in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe 10th floor detention facility must be shut down immediately, and regularly inspected to ensure that Ice adheres to federal guidelines as mandated by law,\u201d Awawdeh added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in earlier statements about the facility that \u201cany claim that there is overcrowding or sub-prime conditions is categorically false\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ice also maintains that the 10th floor is not used for detention. Officially, the agency describes the space as a processing center, and therefore not subject to congressional inspection rules that apply to detention facilities, where national lawmakers have to be allowed to visit. \u201c26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center. It is a federal building with an Ice law enforcement office inside of it,\u201d said McLaughlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But data from Ice detention logs analyzed<\/a> by the City revealed that from September 2023 through late June this year, people were held there in what Ice calls the \u201cNYC Hold Room\u201d for an average of 29 hours. Some stayed for several days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The space remains off-limits to both journalists and lawmakers, even though members of Congress are supposed to be allowed to make unannounced visits to detention sites. Several Democrat representatives have been denied entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Detainees and advocates continue to speak about grim conditions, including sparse food offerings, no showers or clothing changes, and people crammed into a single room with only the floor or hard benches to rest on, according to Gothamist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Ice has been granted a huge budget boost. Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d dedicates roughly $170bn for immigration<\/a> and border-related operations \u2013 a sum that would make Ice the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n