Latest news with #IntensiveSupervisionAppearanceProgram
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Venezuelan migrant who'd rather go to Rikers than face ICE likely won't stay out of feds' hands for long
Joke's on him? A Venezuelan migrant who made the unusual move of voluntarily asking for bail to avoid being arrested by ICE could be locked up on Rikers Island for weeks or longer — regardless of if he posts the $100. Nolveiro Vera Ordonez, 30, likely will end up in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody no matter the outcome of his petty theft case in Manhattan court. A judge's quick decision to hold Ordonez on a federal criminal warrant will ensure he'll be rounded up by ICE once his state case wraps up, confirmed Al Baker, spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, on Thursday. 5 The Rikers Island jail complex is shown in the Bronx borough of New York, on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. AP One immigration lawyer who spoke to The Post laughed at Ordonez's brazen attempt to wait out ICE in jail, while noting Rikers is probably not the best place to cool his heels. 'I'll give them points for thinking out of the box,' quipped attorney Edward Cuccia, though he added, 'As an immigration strategy, it's maybe not the best.' Ordonez's pathway to the questionable legal gambit began Monday, when he was allegedly spotted cutting a lock and stealing a bicycle in Harlem, court papers show. 5 Jail cells are seen in the Enhanced Supervision Housing Unit at the Rikers Island Correctional facility in New York March 12, 2015. REUTERS An NYPD cop arrested Ordonez, leading to his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment Wednesday on charges of petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal mischief. The problem for the Venezuelan migrant is that he faced a criminal arrest warrant from a Texas federal court for allegedly illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in 2022, records show. A cadre of ICE agents were ready to nab Ordonez after the arraignment, so his lawyer, Elizabeth Fischer of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, made an unusual request: set his bail at $100, even though the offenses are usually bail-ineligible. Fischer cited an obscure New York law in which defendants can request bail at any time. 5 Venezuelan migrants arrive after being deported from the United States, at Simon Bolivar International Airport, in Maiquetia, Venezuela April 23, 2025. REUTERS Judge Rachel Pauley, noting the request was 'highly unusual,' agreed to the set the bail — and effectively blocked the federal arrest. But Pauley also remanded Ordonez on the federal warrant, ensuring he'll stay behind bars. 'It is an indefinite hold,' Pauley said. The Big Apple's sanctuary city policies likely won't help Ordonez either. 5 Federal agents escort detainees to vehicles after exiting an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office on June 04, 2025 in New York City. Getty Images Those mandates forbid city officials from helping the feds with civil immigration enforcement, such as someone overstaying their visa. But city officials have repeated stressed they actively cooperate with the feds on criminal immigration charges — which Ordonez faces. 'The judge did her job and followed the law,' Baker said in a statement. 'It's our understanding that the federal criminal warrant, signed by a US magistrate judge from western Texas, would be honored by a local correctional facility,' he said. 'And the defendant subject to it, if he posted bail in the state case, would be released to federal custody to be arraigned on the federal warrant.' 5 Rikers Island is seen in this aerial photograph taken in New York on October 31, 2012. REUTERS Fischer didn't return a request for comment. Cuccia, who is not involved in the case, said Ordonez's attempt to wait out the feds in Rikers still might be better than the alternative. He said he'd advise people facing immigration trouble to stay in local jail, where they have more rights. 'Immigration jails are kind of a black hole,' he said. 'Once you get in there, you can be stuck there for a very long time.' — Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Jennie Taer
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
'Have mercy': Families plead as migrants arrested at routine DHS check-ins
Outside a nondescript building in downtown Manhattan, Ambar was pleading to God and immigration authorities that her husband Jaen would not walk out the doors of the Elk Street facility in handcuffs. "It's the only thing I ask of God and them, to have mercy for his family. I don't have anyone else. I'm alone with my daughter, I don't want to be separated from him," Ambar told ABC News with tears welling up as her daughter Aranza kept herself distracted on an iPad. But her prayers were not answered. That afternoon, Jaen and two other men were brought outside by masked agents in plainclothes and quickly ushered into unmarked vehicles, with Ambar wailing and making a last plea. Aranza, 12, tried to push past the agents to prevent them from leading him toward the vehicles, tears streaming down her face. ABC News observed the emotional moments as an uncontrollably distraught Ambar threw herself on the ground pleading for her husband to be released. The masked individuals did not respond to multiple questions asked by ABC News regarding what agency they belonged to, why they were covering their faces, and which authority was being invoked to detain the men. But Jaen's lawyer, Margaret Cargioli, says his detention follows a growing pattern of migrants being detained during check-ins with the Department of Homeland Security and being quickly deported under expedited removal. DHS did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. In 2023, ABC News did a sit-down interview with the Colombian-Venezuelan family about their tearful reunion after being separated at the border by U.S. authorities in Texas. Jaen, Ambar and Aranza made the dangerous journey from Colombia hoping to seek asylum in the U.S. "[It was] traumatic," Jaen said during the interview. "It was a risky decision. We knew we had someone to take care of, our daughter. As a family, we felt we didn't have another option." MORE: In a new tactic, ICE is arresting migrants at immigration courts, attorneys say Once they reached the border the family said they were separated and were placed in different types of removal proceedings. Ambar and her daughter said they were eventually released and placed on a bus to Los Angeles, funded by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star. Jaen was issued a removal order under the expedited removal process, but Cargioli and other attorneys with Immigrant Defenders Law Center were able to successfully challenge the separation and he was released on humanitarian parole for one year. Cargioli says Jaen has petitioned for asylum, a renewal of parole and a stay of removal but all are pending. Jaen was scheduled for a check-in on June 16 as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) — an alternative to the detention program run by ICE -- but was unexpectedly told to come in on June 3 or 4, Ambar told ABC News. That raised major red flags for his legal team, who has been monitoring increasing incidents of the Trump administration detaining migrants in the interior of the country and placing them on "expedited removal." The process allows the government to remove migrants in a streamlined manner without requiring them, in some cases, to go before a judge. Under the Biden administration, the process applied to migrants who had entered the U.S. within 14 days and within 100 miles of the border. Under the Trump administration, it has been expanded to apply to migrants anywhere in the interior who have arrived within two years. Jaen and his family entered the United States on June 4, 2023, exactly two years before his latest detention, leading Cargioli to fear he's being placed in expedited removal. Despite asking the ISAP officers where he was going to be detained, and if it was through expedited removal, the attorney says she has not received an answer. Jaen spoke with Ambar on the phone after his detention and said he did not know where he was, but that he was being held at a facility close to where he was detained, Ambar said. MORE: Families separated by Trump's 'zero-tolerance' policy at risk due to lapse in legal services, ACLU argues Ambar and Aranza have an asylum hearing scheduled for June 2028. Cargioli believes Jaen would be with his family if they had not been separated at the border. "If he had not been separated from his family at that stage and put into expedited removal, he would have his case in immigration in New York, in immigration court with her, with both of them," she told ABC News. ISAP check-ins are carried out through a government contractor called BI Incorporated, according to DHS reports. Jaen has been regularly checking in at the Elk Street office since his initial detention, Ambar said. Families with loved ones checking in stand outside the facility hoping they will not be detained. On Wednesday, ABC News saw one woman cry with joy when a relative and her baby walked out with no handcuffs in sight. Another woman was shocked to see her mom being quickly led into one of the vehicles waiting outside the building. "Mom what happened, what is this," the woman asked. The masked agents did not respond to her repeated questions about why her mom was being detained. "I don't understand," the woman yelled. "She didn't do anything. She has a work card." "Who do we speak to…what is going on," she asked as the agents closed the car door and drove off with her mother.
a day ago
- Politics
'Have mercy': Families plead as migrants arrested at routine DHS check-ins
Outside a nondescript building in downtown Manhattan, Ambar was pleading to God and immigration authorities that her husband Jaen would not walk out the doors of the Elk Street facility in handcuffs. "It's the only thing I ask of God and them, to have mercy for his family. I don't have anyone else. I'm alone with my daughter, I don't want to be separated from him," Ambar told ABC News with tears welling up as her daughter Aranza kept herself distracted on an iPad. But her prayers were not answered. That afternoon, Jaen and two other men were brought outside by masked agents in plainclothes and quickly ushered into unmarked vehicles, with Ambar wailing and making a last plea. Aranza, 12, tried to push past the agents to prevent them from leading him toward the vehicles, tears streaming down her face. ABC News observed the emotional moments as an uncontrollably distraught Ambar threw herself on the ground pleading for her husband to be released. The masked individuals did not respond to multiple questions asked by ABC News regarding what agency they belonged to, why they were covering their faces, and which authority was being invoked to detain the men. But Jaen's lawyer, Margaret Cargioli, says his detention follows a growing pattern of migrants being detained during check-ins with the Department of Homeland Security and being quickly deported under expedited removal. DHS did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. In 2023, ABC News did a sit-down interview with the Colombian-Venezuelan family about their tearful reunion after being separated at the border by U.S. authorities in Texas. Jaen, Ambar and Aranza made the dangerous journey from Colombia hoping to seek asylum in the U.S. "[It was] traumatic," Jaen said during the interview. "It was a risky decision. We knew we had someone to take care of, our daughter. As a family, we felt we didn't have another option." Once they reached the border the family said they were separated and were placed in different types of removal proceedings. Ambar and her daughter said they were eventually released and placed on a bus to Los Angeles, funded by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star. Jaen was issued a removal order under the expedited removal process, but Cargioli and other attorneys with Immigrant Defenders Law Center were able to successfully challenge the separation and he was released on humanitarian parole for one year. Cargioli says Jaen has petitioned for asylum, a renewal of parole and a stay of removal but all are pending. Jaen was scheduled for a check-in on June 16 as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) — an alternative to the detention program run by ICE -- but was unexpectedly told to come in on June 3 or 4, Ambar told ABC News. That raised major red flags for his legal team, who has been monitoring increasing incidents of the Trump administration detaining migrants in the interior of the country and placing them on "expedited removal." The process allows the government to remove migrants in a streamlined manner without requiring them, in some cases, to go before a judge. Under the Biden administration, the process applied to migrants who had entered the U.S. within 14 days and within 100 miles of the border. Under the Trump administration, it has been expanded to apply to migrants anywhere in the interior who have arrived within two years. Jaen and his family entered the United States on June 4, 2023, exactly two years before his latest detention, leading Cargioli to fear he's being placed in expedited removal. Despite asking the ISAP officers where he was going to be detained, and if it was through expedited removal, the attorney says she has not received an answer. Jaen spoke with Ambar on the phone after his detention and said he did not know where he was, but that he was being held at a facility close to where he was detained, Ambar said. Ambar and Aranza have an asylum hearing scheduled for June 2028. Cargioli believes Jaen would be with his family if they had not been separated at the border. "If he had not been separated from his family at that stage and put into expedited removal, he would have his case in immigration in New York, in immigration court with her, with both of them," she told ABC News. ISAP check-ins are carried out through a government contractor called BI Incorporated, according to DHS reports. Jaen has been regularly checking in at the Elk Street office since his initial detention, Ambar said. Families with loved ones checking in stand outside the facility hoping they will not be detained. On Wednesday, ABC News saw one woman cry with joy when a relative and her baby walked out with no handcuffs in sight. Another woman was shocked to see her mom being quickly led into one of the vehicles waiting outside the building. "Mom what happened, what is this," the woman asked. The masked agents did not respond to her repeated questions about why her mom was being detained. "I don't understand," the woman yelled. "She didn't do anything. She has a work card."
New York Post
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Exclu: ICE facilities bursting at the seams with 53K illegal migrants in detention -- with agency desperate for funds to support Trump's mass deportation
Federal immigration detention centers are filled to the brim, holding roughly 53,000 illegal migrants as the Trump administration pushes to expand its mass deportation effort — but ICE is desperate for more cash to do so, sources told The Post. The current number of illegal migrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody is beyond what is funded by Congress, and sources say more facilities are going to be opening to continue to expand the number of available detention beds. 3 ICE agents escorting detainees outside an immigration court. Getty Images In Fiscal Year 2024, Congress funded roughly 41,500 ICE detention beds at a cost of roughly $3.4 billion, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The feds did not reveal the total number of beds they have in the system. But the agency is continuing to search for additional facilities through private prison contractors and the Department of Defense to make more room for immigrants collared by ICE, sources said. If Republicans' 'Big Beautiful Bill' passes the Senate, ICE will have $45 billion to expand its detention capacity, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 3 Homeland Security Secretary and Customs and Border Protection officials walking at a border crossing. POOL/AFP via Getty Images White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressed their frustrations with the pace of arrests to ICE leadership at a May 21 meeting, pushing agents to make a 'minimum' of 3,000 arrests per day, according to Axios. The Trump administration gave ICE a quota of 1,800 arrests per day in January. As a result, daily arrests jumped from the 1,600 last week to 2,200 this week, sources told The Post. But the pace of arrests is 'unsustainable,' said an agency source. 3 Aerial view of immigration detainees at a Texas facility holding a banner that says 'Help we want to be deported we are not terrorists, S.O.S.' Getty Images 'It takes hours to process one person illegally in the country, and to be told that what you're doing still isn't good enough is killing agents' morale.' In recent weeks, the Trump administration has expanded its immigration raids, targeting migrants appearing for regular check-ins with ICE and those leaving immigration courts with final deportation orders. Masked federal agents were seen Wednesday arresting at least five illegal migrants appearing for appointments near Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, photos showed. Masked federal agents were seen Wednesday detaining at least five illegal immigrants who were exiting an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office near Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, photos showed. Last week, as many as 10 migrants were detained while leaving the federal immigration courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza. Another 16 immigrants were detained from a nondescript office building in the same area Tuesday afternoon, The City reported.
Axios
a day ago
- Politics
- Axios
Chicago officials decry ICE tactics in surprise detentions
At least 20 people were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Wednesday in the South Loop, advocates say. Elected officials and advocates tell Axios the detainees received text messages asking them to check in as part of a federal monitoring program that requires them to wear ankle monitors. Why it matters: Chicago alders say masked ICE agents did not identify themselves nor inform attorneys why individuals were being detained or where they were going. The other side: ICE sent a statement to NBC 5 saying the agency had " final orders of removal" signed by a judge for those detained. ICE did not respond to Axios' multiple requests for comment. The big picture: After the people were separated from their lawyers at the 2245 S. Michigan Ave. administrative office, activists called supporters to gather outside the building, leading to clashes between protesters and agents. Elected officials on the scene included Alds. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd), Andre Vasquez (40th), Jessie Fuentes (26th) and Anthony Quezada (35th). Quezada says agents pushed him to the ground. What they're saying: "They cannot be operating with that level of secrecy," Sigcho-Lopez tells Axios. "These people came in with no identification, pointing guns, wearing masks, shoving people to the ground, without giving any reason for why they were being detained. This was not safe. This was mayhem." "Using text messages to call people into ISAP [Intensive Supervision Appearance Program] facilities to arrest the exact immigrants who are demonstrating their commitment to the rule of law by complying with ICE's instructions runs counter to every claim the Trump Administration has made," Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) said in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The intrigue: Immigrant advocates The Resurrection Project noted that ICE agents brought a photographer with them during the action, suggesting the agency is, "turning our pain into political theater," according to a statement. "Today wasn't about public safety or law enforcement. It was about creating fear and confusion in our communities," the group said. Zoom in: Mayor Brandon Johnson released a statement Wednesday saying in part, "I condemn the reckless and dangerous escalation from ICE agents." State of play: Chicago police officers were also at the scene, but according to spokesperson Tom Ahern, they were there for crowd control and were not cooperating with ICE. "No arrests were made by CPD and the crowd dispersed without incident," Ahern said in a statement. Zoom out: Wednesday's incident came after ICE officers this week reportedly detained two people who worked at a Pilsen restaurant.
