Judge says ICE can't hold detainees at NYC facility unless it improves conditions and gives them sleeping mats
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued the temporary restraining order after holding a hearing earlier Tuesday. A government lawyer conceded in court that those detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, at the Manhattan facility did not have access to certain services, including sleeping mats, in-person legal visits, medication and more than two meals per day.
The holding facility in question, located inside the 26 Federal Plaza building in downtown Manhattan, has been at the center of widespread criticism from pro-immigrant advocates, who have denounced conditions faced by detainees there as "inhumane." Video released last month showed detainees at the facility lying on the ground, without mats or beds.
ICE has said the site has fewer services because it is not designed for long-term detention, though government data indicates some detainees have been held for days there.
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates filed a lawsuit against ICE over the 26 Federal Plaza holding facility, alleging that detainees there were being held in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, without access to basic necessities, including hygiene products. The advocates said detainees only received two "inedible" meals daily and were denied access to unrestricted calls with lawyers.
On Tuesday morning, Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Oestericher said the government did not dispute that detainees at the facility only received blankets, not beds or sleeping mats. He confirmed detainees get two meals each day — not three — and that the toilets for detainees are inside the same area where they sleep. Oestericher said the facility does not permit in-person visitations due to its "layout" and noted the government did not dispute claims that detainees lack access to medication.
In his order later Tuesday, Kaplan placed restrictions on how many people ICE can hold at the Manhattan site, prohibiting the agency from using holding rooms with a floor area that is less than 50 square feet per detainee.
Kaplan said ICE could only hold people at the facility if it offered them regular calls with lawyers, clean bedding mats, know-your-rights notices, access to medication, soap, towels, toilet paper, toothpaste and feminine hygiene products. He also ordered ICE to ensure the holding areas are cleaned three times each day.
Representatives for ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday's temporary restraining order, which is set to last for 14 days. The Trump administration has repeatedly denied allegations of subpar conditions at ICE detention centers.
"Today's order sends a clear message: ICE cannot hold people in abusive conditions and deny them their Constitutional rights to due process and legal representation," said Eunice Cho, a senior attorney at the ACLU.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander called the ruling "a much-needed rebuke of Trump's cruel immigration policies" in a statement Tuesday.
In July, the New York Immigration Coalition released a video, which was verified by CBS News New York, showing conditions on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza.
On the video, it appears over two dozen people are being held together in one room. The person taking the video is heard saying, "Look how they have us here like dogs."
The room does not appear to have any furniture in it. A number of people are seen laying or sitting on towels or foil blankets on the floor. There are two toilets with sinks in the back of the room, only separated by half walls with no doors. One of the two toilets is covered with a foil blanket.
The legal fight over the Manhattan holding facility comes at a time when ICE is detaining record numbers of people facing deportation. On Tuesday morning, ICE was holding nearly 60,000 detainees in detention centers throughout the U.S., according to internal agency data.
As part of President Trump's government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration, ICE has sought to expand its detention system by bringing new facilities online, brokering agreements with states willing to convert local sites into immigration detention centers and using military bases, like Fort Bliss in Texas, as deportation staging hubs.
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CBS News
27 minutes ago
- CBS News
Transcript: Rep. Jason Crow on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Aug. 17, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 17, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're joined now by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow. Good to see you in person. Before we start talking about Ukraine, I want to pick up on something, since you sit on the Intelligence Committee. The Secretary of State just said that lawmakers had come to the Trump administration with information that they've been granting visas to individuals with ties to Hamas, or with organizations with ties to Hamas. That's a pretty stunning accusation. Israel controls who enters and exits Gaza. The United States screens all visas. So, is there really a blind spot that you are aware of? REP. JASON CROW: I'm not aware of that. But if that's true, actually, that is concerning. That would be a problem. I mean, Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. They should not be traveling anywhere. So, if that's happening, it should be stopped immediately. And, you know, the Intelligence Committee has a role to play in that. MARGARET BRENNAN: But the Intelligence Committee wasn't behind the information presented to the Secretary of State. SPEAKER: I have not been briefed on that. I have no information about it. MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, on Ukraine: You know that the U.S. intelligence assessment is that the battlefield is turning in Russia's favor, despite the fact that Putin has to rely on Iran and North Korea to keep this thing going. If neither President Biden nor President Trump were ever willing to commit troops, doesn't the secretary have a point that it has to be hammered out at the negotiating table? REP. CROW: You know, this absolutely will end at a negotiating table, like most conflicts will. But what happened on Friday was a historic embarrassment for the United States. There's no other way to put it. Right? You listen to what Marco Rubio and the president have said. They keep on saying they're dedicating time. They're making it a priority. They're focusing their attention on it. In any negotiation, when you're trying to end an armed conflict, there's nothing more important than understanding what motivates your adversary. What is making Vladimir Putin tick, in this instance. Vladimir Putin does not care about the amount of time that we're nego- we're allocating to this, does not care about a B-2 bomber flyover, does not care about a lineup of F-22 fighters rolled out. He doesn't care about any of that. What Vladimir Putin cares about is basically three things. He cares about economic pressure in the form of sanctions. He cares about political, diplomatic isolation, being a pariah state. And he cares about military defeat. Those are the three things that will end this conflict if he feels pressure on all of those three fronts. And this administration continues to be unwilling to do anything to assert pressure in any of those three areas. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they have put in place some secondary sanctions, at least on India here, and they haven't pulled back. They need Congress to help them repeal a lot of these sanctions. But bigger picture, in hindsight, do you think the United States to date has been too hesitant to actually help Ukraine win this war? President Obama did not send offensive weapons to Ukraine. President Biden was criticized for being perhaps too slow in delivery of certain weapons. REP. CROW: There's no doubt. As you know, I was one of the members of Congress that, on a bipartisan basis, pushed really hard in the first two years of this war, under the Biden administration, to do more, to do more quicker. And I was concerned that we were doing just enough to prevent Ukraine from losing and not doing enough to help them win. And I do believe that had we done more, and we had done it faster, and that we were willing to be more aggressive in providing aid and support for Ukraine, then they would be in a different position on the battlefield today. But compare that to what this administration has done, which has relieved almost all pressure. Like look at what happened on Friday. U.S. military personnel in uniform, literally, were on their hands and knees, rolling out a red carpet for the most murderous dictator of the 21st century. Somebody who has kidnapped and is holding prisoner tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Somebody who started this whole war, right? This both-sides-ism that the administration is engaging in, that both sides need to come to the table and negotiate. Ukraine is the victim. They are the victim. They didn't start this war. Russia did. And somehow we keep on acting like Vladimir Putin deserves to be brought out into the open like any other head of state. This is a historic embarrassment and defeat for U.S. foreign policy. MARGARET BRENNAN: You have served this country in uniform. I wonder, since you sit on the Armed Services Committee, how comfortable you would be with the United States giving this, whatever the Article Five-like security guarantee would look like. Is that something you should see boots on the ground to do? REP. CROW: I don't think boots on the ground would be the way to go. But, certainly, the United States has assets and capability that I think are essential to any type of security guarantee. I think Europe has to come forward with the forward presence of military. But we can provide intelligence. We can provide economic support, diplomatic support. One of the most important things that we can do right now is actually seize Russian assets. This would be huge. This would be a game-changing thing that put pressure on Vladimir Putin. And actually create security guarantees and reconstruction for Ukraine. There's over $150 billion of seized Russian assets, and the United States could lead a coalition to seize that money. Allocate it towards reconstruction, allocate it towards security, allocate it towards the building of a Ukrainian military that could actually resist Russia going forward. But this administration is unwilling to do it. MARGARET BRENNAN: Last administration was too, they-- REP. CROW: --That's right. MARGARET BRENNAN: They did agree to the legislation. But on the immigration front, you and your fellow Democratic lawmakers are now trying to challenge the Trump administration's policy that requires notice to be given before you visit an immigration facility. You just did visit some. What did you see, and how does that compare to the last visit? REP. CROW: Well, there's an ICE detention center in my district, in Aurora, Colorado. I have visited that center 10 times now over the last five years, six years. And oversight of federal facilities is one of the most important things that any member of Congress does. Air Force bases, military bases, VA hospitals and ICE detention centers. This administration just tripled the budget of ICE. Made it the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the United States. Bigger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, all others combined. And they are putting in roadblocks to prevent oversight, to prevent transparency because they were trying to hide what they are doing. That is unacceptable. So we filed a lawsuit to force them to abide by federal law that guarantees us access. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we'll see where that heads next. Jason Crow, thank you. We'll be right back.
New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Administration Minimizes Summit Papers Left in Hotel
The Trump administration this weekend downplayed a report that officials left in a public area of a hotel documents describing the confidential movements of President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during their meeting in Alaska on Friday. NPR reported earlier that the documents were left on a printer in the Hotel Captain Cook in downtown Anchorage, near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had their meeting about the war in Ukraine. The documents were produced by the Office of the Chief of Protocol, a position held by Monica Crowley, a former Fox News personality who served in Mr. Trump's first term. The papers were found around 9 a.m. on Friday and sent to NPR by a guest of the hotel, who was granted anonymity. They listed the sequence of events, which included a smaller meeting with Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin and their top foreign policy advisers; an expanded meeting and working lunch with several cabinet officials; a news conference; and an interview between Mr. Trump and Sean Hannity of Fox News. The documents also included a lunch menu for a three-course luncheon held 'in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin.' Green salad, filet mignon, and halibut Olympia — a humble local favorite — were on the menu. But since the lengthy day of meetings was cut short on Friday, the expanded meeting and the working lunch were bypassed in favor of an abrupt news conference between the two leaders, who did not take questions. The White House and State Department have both derided the documents as a glorified lunch menu. 'Instead of covering the historic steps towards peace achieved at Friday's summit, NPR is trying to make a story out of a lunch menu. Ridiculous,' Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in an email. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday, but NPR reported a day earlier that an administration spokeswoman had characterized the papers as a 'multipage lunch menu' and not a security breach. The papers included precise times and locations of each meeting, as well as the phone numbers of several administration officials. Eliot A. Cohen, a former counselor in the State Department who served in the Bush administration, said in an interview that the administration had been both 'sloppy' and 'incompetent' in leaving behind the materials. 'Above all, they don't have process,' said Mr. Cohen, who is now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'A well-drilled bureaucracy doesn't do these things.' But he added that the materials did not seem high-level or reveal state or military secrets. 'My guess is the Russians already have everybody's phone numbers,' Mr. Cohen said.
CNN
27 minutes ago
- CNN
White House signals strong momentum toward peace in Ukraine but many questions linger
President Donald Trump's foreign envoy Steve Witkoff — one of three American participants in Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin — described on Sunday several major agreements reached during the Alaska talks that he said created strong momentum toward a peace agreement with Ukraine. Witkoff told CNN that Putin had signed off on allowing 'robust' security guarantees as part of an eventual peace accord, including a provision that would provide for a collective defense of Ukraine by the United States and Europe should Russia attempt another invasion. 'We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game changing,' Witkoff told Jake Tapper on 'State of the Union,' adding the Russians had also pledged 'legislative enshrinement' of a promise not to invade Ukraine or another European country in any forthcoming peace plan. Neither provision has been mentioned in Russian accounts of the summit. Witkoff's public description of Friday's summit was the most fulsome yet of what was discussed for nearly three hours behind closed doors in Anchorage. Trump will meet Monday at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and several European leaders to discuss the matter in more detail. Still, many questions remained about how the US is assessing Putin's seriousness about reaching a deal, whether his promises can be trusted after a track record of violating previous peace agreements and what exactly Trump is willing to offer to ensure Ukraine isn't invaded again. Heading into Friday's meeting, Trump said he would be disappointed if a ceasefire wasn't reached and threatened 'severe' consequences on Russia if Putin didn't end the fighting. But as he departed, Trump said he was no longer aiming for an immediate ceasefire and declared 'we don't have to think' about sanctions after the talks. Witkoff said significant progress during the summit led Trump to abandon his push for an immediate ceasefire and instead work toward advancing a larger peace agreement. 'We made so much progress at this meeting with regard to all the other ingredients necessary for a for a peace deal that we, that President Trump, pivoted to that place,' Witkoff said. The other US participant in the talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, offered a more guarded assessment of how close a peace agreement may be. 'We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remains some big areas of disagreement. So we're still a long ways off,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'We're not at the precipice of a peace agreement, we're not at the edge of one, but I do think progress was made.' He said later on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that any agreement to end the war would cause disappointment on both sides. 'It may not be pleasant, it may be distasteful, but in order for there to be an end to the war, there are things that Russia wants that it cannot get and there are things that Ukraine wants that it's not going to get,' he said. The agreements Witkoff described will be at the center of meetings Monday between Trump and Zelensky. A large delegation of European officials — including the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO — will accompany the Ukrainian leader for the talks. European leaders have been pressing Trump to follow through on his threat of tough new economic penalties on Russia, but Rubio cautioned such steps could scuttle progress on a peace deal. 'The minute he takes those steps, all talks stop,' he said. 'The minute we take those steps, there is no one left in the world to go talk to the Russians and try to get them to the table to reach a peace agreement.' A breakout session during Monday's talks at the White House will explore options for security guarantees for Ukraine that would ensure Russia is unable to re-invade the country once a peace deal is in place. Zelensky and European leaders have said such assurances are necessary as part of a peace accord. Witkoff said the clause agreed to by Russia — akin to NATO's 'Article 5' agreement that an attack against one country is an attack against all — was a workaround for Russia's insistence Ukraine never be able to join NATO. He described it as the 'first time we had ever heard the Russians agree' to such a provision being included in a peace deal. What the United States would contribute to the effort — versus the the Europeans — remained unclear. Trump has previously stated clearly that American troops won't be on the ground in Ukraine, and has said the onus is on European nations to take the lead in protecting it. Some officials believe a robust security infrastructure for Ukraine could make it easier for Zelensky to accept some of Russia's demands for land concessions as part of a peace deal. Putin has not abandoned some of his maximalist ideas, including that Ukraine give up the entire eastern Donbas region, where Russia currently occupies large swaths of territory. But Witkoff said Putin did make some concessions on his land requirements, suggested the Russians now see 'land swapping' occurring at the current frontlines of the war rather than the administrative boundaries of at least some of the five regions long in Putin's sights. 'The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,' he said, adding the issue would be discussed with Zelensky on Monday and 'hopefully we can cut through and make some decisions right then and there.'
