Latest news with #LewisKaplan
Free Malaysia Today
5 days ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
US judge orders humane conditions for migrant detainees at NY site
Donald Trump, pledging mass deportations, urged authorities to aggressively pursue his goal of one million deportations annually. (EPA Images pic) NEW YORK : A US judge ordered Tuesday that migrants being held at a Manhattan federal facility where individuals are often arrested after attending court hearings to fight deportation be kept in humane conditions. Images have emerged showing unsanitary and cramped conditions in a holding room in New York City's 26 Federal Plaza, where migrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are detained. Manhattan judge Lewis Kaplan issued a temporary restraining order directing that no detainee be kept in less than 50 square feet (4.6 square metres) of space, without clean bedding and hygiene products, or be deprived of private attorney-client calls. ICE 'shall not retaliate in any manner against Plaintiff (including in his or her immigration proceedings…) for complaining about any alleged violation of this temporary restraining order,' Kaplan ordered. Hundreds of migrants have passed through the facility as immigration officers have stepped up their arrests of those going through the immigration court in a downtown skyscraper. Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport large numbers of migrants, has encouraged authorities to be more aggressive as he seeks to hit his widely reported target of one million deportations annually. Since Trump's return to the White House, homeland security agents have adopted the tactic – criticised by rights groups – of waiting outside immigration courts nationwide and arresting migrants as they leave at the end of asylum hearings. Armed agents with badges from different federal agencies loiter outside court hearings in the tower block in central New York, holding paperwork with photographs of migrants to be targeted, AFP has seen. In the complaint filed Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Foundation sued the department of homeland security on behalf of Sergio Mercado and other unnamed detainees. The filing alleged that 'immigrants (are) being detained in crowded rooms at a federal building in the heart of Manhattan without beds, sufficient food, hygiene products, access to showers, or the ability to communicate confidentially with attorneys.' 'They bring this action to challenge these unlawful conditions of confinement and ban on attorney access,' said the class action suit. Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project, said '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.' 'We'll continue to fight to ensure that peoples' rights are upheld at 26 Federal Plaza and beyond.' The judge set a deadline of Aug 18 for the government to respond to the claims in the complaint ahead of a ruling on a preliminary injunction.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge Orders ICE Facility To Stop Forcing Detainees To Sleep On The Floor
On Tuesday, a U.S. district judge had to order ICE to provide the bare minimum to detainees held at a federal building in downtown Manhattan. During a hearing regarding conditions at the building — 26 Federal Plaza — a government attorney admitted that detainees did not have access to sleeping mats, medication or more than two meals per day, CBS News reports. In a temporary order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that ICE must provide clean bedding mats for each person after videos revealed that immigrants were sleeping directly on the floor. Kaplan also stated that each detainee should have an area of at least 50 square feet in floor space as well as access to soap, towels and toilet paper, among other fundamental necessities. Kaplan's order follows a lawsuit from civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, which raised concerns about 'inhumane' conditions at the federal facility, including that people were forced to sleep on concrete next to toilets, packed tightly in overcrowded cells and deprived of medication. A reported video of the facility obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition that was published in July also captured numerous detainees jammed inside one of the building's rooms and sprawled on the ground with nothing but aluminum blankets. Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary of public affairs, has pushed back on the order, describing it as 'driven by complete fiction,' despite the government lawyer's description of the facility's conditions. '26 Federal Plaza operates as a processing center, brief intake for illegal aliens, and then transfer to an ICE detention center meeting national standards for care and custody, which are in most cases better than facilities which detain Americans,' McLaughlin said in a statement. That a judge had to require ICE to provide essential supplies and humane treatment to detainees underscores how the agency has reportedly skirted these obligations in multiple detention facilities. While detention spaces in 26 Federal Plaza, which also houses an immigration court, weren't typically used to hold people for long periods, advocates say that people have been held there for more than a week and denied basic services in the interim. Kaplan's order added that detainees should be able to request medical care and to access prescription medications that they had at the time of detention or that family members bring for them. It also stated that detainees should have the means to make confidential calls to legal counsel, something that advocates said they had been barred from doing previously. Related... I Watched 20 Arrests In Trump's America. Here's What They Looked Like. Immigration Agents Detain Boy With Disabilities Outside LA School Pregnant Women Face Harrowing Abuses In Immigrant Detention, Democratic Report Says Solve the daily Crossword
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
ICE ordered to improve conditions at NYC facility after lawsuit alleges unsanitary cells where immigrants lack food and water
A federal judge in New York has ordered Donald Trump's administration to improve conditions inside a makeshift detention center in downtown Manhattan, where detainees reported little access to food and water, sleeping on cement floors and not having anywhere to bathe for days or weeks at a time. The order from District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday arrived just hours after Department of Justice lawyers admitted that immigrants inside the holding facility don't have access to medication and aren't allowed to meet with lawyers in person. A lawsuit from civil rights groups includes several grim accounts from inside the facility on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, including allegations that a 20-year-old detainee was forced to wear blood-soaked clothing after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents didn't provide her with a pad. In court filings, detainees said they were fed inedible 'slop' and were forced to sleep in cells surrounded by the 'horrific stench' of sweat, urine and feces in rooms with open toilets. Other detainees reported spending as much as three weeks inside the facility without a chance to bathe or brush their teeth. Another man said he watched a detainee have a seizure for 30 minutes before medical help arrived. Kaplan ordered ICE to improve detainees' access to personal hygiene products and medical care, as well as free, unmonitored and confidential calls with lawyers within 24 hours after they are detained. Cells must also be cleaned three times a day, according to the order. The order also prohibits people from detaining people in spaces with less than 50 square feet per person, which shrinks the capacity of the largest hold room to roughly a dozen or so people. Tuesday'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,' according to Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project, among groups that sued the administration over conditions at the facility. The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Homeland Security. In court filings, Hugo Elias Sanchez Trillos described spending nearly three weeks inside that facility, with a three-day break in between when he was transferred to Nassau County jail. 'I was in the same clothes for 19 days, without ever having an opportunity to bathe,' he wrote. The room 'smelled terrible because no one had bathed,' according to Joselyn Chipantiza Sisalema. 'There was no bathroom paper, and the guards would throw only a few paper napkins into our room,' she wrote. Detainees were served food only twice a day, around 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and 'we got water only when the guards felt like it,' Sanchez Trillos wrote. 'The food was processed and awful; it was difficult to eat. It came inside plastic bags that were usually cold,' he said. 'The guards would eat their own food in front of us, things like pizza and hamburgers. … We were so hungry and it felt [like] they were jeering at us.' Videos from inside the facility show roughly two dozen people crammed in, lying on a cement floor with nothing but emergency blankets and thin sheets, steps away from a toilet separated only by a waist-high partition. 'Look how they have us like dogs in here,' the person filming the videos can be heard saying in Spanish. Footage obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition provides outsiders with a first glimpse of the room, which federal officials have prevented members of Congress from observing. In the clips, the men inside are seated on benches that line the walls or are lying on aluminum emergency blankets on the bare floor. Two toilets in the room, one of which appears to be covered by tinfoil, are blocked off by a small partition. No doors separate the toilets from the rest of the room. Following Tuesday's order, the 'shadow 10th floor detention center must be shut down permanently,' coalition president Murad Awawdeh said in a statement. Immigrants' rights groups, lawyers and lawmakers have warned for weeks about deteriorating conditions inside the building, which also houses immigration courts. Federal law enforcement officers have been stationed in the building's hallways since at least May 20 to make arrests moments after immigrants appear in court. The 'hold room' is not intended to hold people for longer than 12 hours, according to ICE's internal guidance. In May and June, when arrests at immigration check-ins and courthouses began to skyrocket, immigrants were being held inside the room for 29 hours on average, according to a review from New York City news outlet The City. Within those two months, 81 people were detained there for four days or more at a time. Detentions peaked on June 5, when 186 people were held there overnight, The City found. Thousands of people across the country have faced arrest after showing up for court-ordered ICE check-ins and immigration court hearings as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda. Unlike federal district court judges, immigration court judges operate under the direction of the attorney general's office. The Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review has issued guidance to judges to grant motions from government lawyers to immediately dismiss immigrants' cases, making them easy targets for arrest and removal.
France 24
6 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
US judge orders humane conditions for migrant detainees at NY site
Images have emerged showing unsanitary and cramped conditions in a holding room in New York City's 26 Federal Plaza, where migrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are detained. Manhattan Judge Lewis Kaplan issued a temporary restraining order directing that no detainee be kept in less than 50 square feet (4.6 square meters) of space, without clean bedding and hygiene products, or be deprived of private attorney-client calls. ICE "shall not retaliate in any manner against Plaintiff (including in his or her immigration proceedings...) for complaining about any alleged violation of this temporary restraining order," Kaplan ordered. Hundreds of migrants have passed through the facility as immigration officers have stepped up their arrests of those going through the immigration court in a downtown skyscraper. Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport large numbers of migrants, has encouraged authorities to be more aggressive as he seeks to hit his widely reported target of one million deportations annually. Since Trump's return to the White House, Homeland Security agents have adopted the tactic -- criticized by rights groups -- of waiting outside immigration courts nationwide and arresting migrants as they leave at the end of asylum hearings. Armed agents with badges from different federal agencies loiter outside court hearings in the tower block in central New York, holding paperwork with photographs of migrants to be targeted, AFP has seen. In the complaint filed Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of Sergio Mercado and other unnamed detainees. The filing alleged that "immigrants (are) being detained in crowded rooms at a federal building in the heart of Manhattan without beds, sufficient food, hygiene products, access to showers, or the ability to communicate confidentially with attorneys." "They bring this action to challenge these unlawful conditions of confinement and ban on attorney access," said the class action suit. Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project, said "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." "We'll continue to fight to ensure that peoples' rights are upheld at 26 Federal Plaza and beyond." The judge set a deadline of August 18 for the government to respond to the claims in the complaint ahead of a ruling on a preliminary injunction.
CBS News
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Judge says ICE can't hold detainees at NYC facility unless it improves conditions and gives them sleeping mats
A federal judge on Tuesday said he would block the Trump administration from using a federal building in New York City to hold immigrants facing deportation unless it reduces the number of detainees and improves conditions at the site, including by providing sleeping mats and hygiene products. 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.
