Judge Orders ICE To Improve Conditions At NYC Holding Facility

NEW YORK CITY — A U.S. District Judge issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday, barring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining migrants at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that ICE must ensure that:

"No person detained at 26 Federal Plaza, New York, New York (hereinafter “Detainees”), is held or detained is held or detained in any hold room or other room, cell or other space.”

The order bars ICE from detaining people in spaces with less than 50 square feet per person, and requires ICE to provide access to medical care, access to hygiene products, provide sleeping mats and allow detainees to make confidential calls to their lawyers.

The decision comes after a release of a video by the New York Immigration Coalition last month which showed an alleged ICE detention facility on the 10th floor of the building.

According to the New York Immigration Coalition, individuals detained at the facility have been there for days and weeks at a time without showers, medication or a change of clothes, sleeping on the floor, and with minimal food and outside contact, Patch previously reported.

City comptroller Brad Lander said the decision was a "much-needed rebuke of Trump’s cruel immigration policies."

"It confirms much of what we already knew: that the Trump Administration turned the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza into a makeshift detention center without adequate beds, restrooms, or supplies. Week after week, I've seen New Yorkers hauled off to squalid conditions without access to counsel. ICE is required to provide basic standards within 24 hours, and the agency must not continue to refuse government officials’ access to conduct oversight and ensure they are meeting the court's mandate," he said in a statement.

"Sadly, our Immigration Courts have become a place where the rule of law is being eroded; I’m grateful that today our Federal Courts are upholding it.”

It is unclear at this time how the changes will be enforced.

You can read the full temporary restraining order here.