{"id":46045,"date":"2025-08-12T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46045"},"modified":"2025-08-12T23:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T04:01:08","slug":"trump-officials-ordered-to-urgently-improve-conditions-at-new-york-ice-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46045","title":{"rendered":"Trump officials ordered to urgently improve conditions at New York Ice jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration Tuesday to immediately improve conditions at a New York<\/a> City immigration holding facility, acting on complaints by jailed migrants that it is dirty, smelly and overcrowded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Lewis Kaplan, ruling in a lawsuit filed on behalf of detainees, issued a temporary restraining order requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to limit capacity, ensure cleanliness and provide sleeping mats in so-called hold rooms at 26 Federal Plaza, a government building in Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cellphone video recorded last month by a detainee showed about two dozen men crowded in one of the building\u2019s four hold rooms, many lying on the floor with thermal blankets but no mattresses or padding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In court filings, detainees complained they had no soap, toothbrushes or other hygiene products. They said they were fed inedible \u201cslop\u201d and endured the \u201chorrific stench\u201d of sweat, urine and feces, in part because the rooms have open toilets. One woman having her period could not use menstrual products because women in her room were given just two to divvy up, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaplan ordered immigration officials to allocate 50 sq feet per person \u2013 shrinking the largest hold room\u2019s capacity to about 15 people after detainees said 40 or more were being jammed in. The building, home to immigration court and the FBI\u2019s New York field office, has become an epicenter of Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge ordered the government to thoroughly clean the cells three times a day and provide an adequate supply of hygiene products. Addressing concerns that detainees were not able to communicate with lawyers, Kaplan ordered the government to make accommodations for confidential legal telephone calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy conclusion here is that there is a very serious threat of continuing irreparable injury, given the conditions that I\u2019ve been told about,\u201d Kaplan said at a hearing Tuesday where a government lawyer conceded that some of the complaints were valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we all agree that conditions at 26 Federal Plaza need to be humane, and we obviously share that belief,\u201d government lawyer Jeffrey S Oestericher said, adding that he agreed \u201cinhumane conditions are not appropriate and should not be tolerated\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit \u2013 filed by the immigrant rights organization Make the Road New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union \u2013 sought court intervention to end what plaintiff lawyer Heather Gregorio called \u201cinhumane and horrifying conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some detainees have been held at 26 Federal Plaza far longer than the 72-hour norm, Gregorio said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, welcomed Kaplan\u2019s ruling as a \u201cstep forward\u201d but said the facility \u201cmust be shut down permanently\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who was arrested at 26 Federal Plaza in June after he tried to lock arms with a person authorities were attempting to detain, said the decision \u201cis a much-needed rebuke of Trump\u2019s cruel immigration policies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sworn declaration, Nancy Zanello, of Ice\u2019s New York City field office of enforcement and removal operations, wrote that as of Monday, a total of 24 people were held in the building\u2019s four hold rooms \u2013 well shy of the city fire marshal\u2019s 154-person cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each room has at least one toilet and sink, and hygiene products are available, including soap, teeth cleaning wipes and feminine products, Zanello said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sergio Barco Mercado, the lawsuit\u2019s named plaintiff, said in a court filing that he was held at 26 Federal Plaza for two days last week after his arrest there while leaving an immigration court hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barco Mercado, a native of Peru who said he sought asylum in the US in 2022, said his holding room was \u201cextremely crowded\u201d, cold and \u201csmelled of sewage\u201d, and that the conditions exacerbated a tooth infection that swelled his face and altered his speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did not always get enough water,\u201d Barco Mercado said. \u201cThere was one guard who would sometimes hold a bottle of water up and people would wait to have him squirt some into our mouths, like we were animals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another detainee, Carlos Lopez Benitez, said he fled violence in Paraguay in 2023 and was seeking asylum in the US when he was arrested in July while leaving an immigration hearing. He said officers told him he\u2019d be in detention until a 2029 hearing on his asylum application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez Benitez said an officer showed him a cellphone photo of his arrest and mocked him for crying. In his holding cell, he said, officers blasted air conditioning and doled out meals that \u201clooked like dog food\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration Tuesday to immediately improve conditions at a New York City immigration holding facility, acting on complaints by jailed migrants that it is dirty, smelly and overcrowded. Judge Lewis Kaplan, ruling in a lawsuit filed on behalf of detainees, issued a temporary restraining order requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to limit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":46047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34320,34319,2831,1230],"class_list":["post-46045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ice-jail","tag-improvement","tag-new-york","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46049,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46045\/revisions\/46049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}