Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials under a judge’s order to clean up overcrowded and squalid conditions on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza detained migrants on a separate, secret floor where they decided that ruling didn’t apply, attorneys for the Trump administration admitted in federal court Monday.
A judge’s order last summer mandated capacity restrictions and improved conditions at the federal building, which has been a focus of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts in New York City. The order applied to any “person detained by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza,.”
But ICE has interpreted the order as applying to just one floor of the building, while conceding it has been detaining some immigrants on a separate floor.
The revelations emerged during a hearing over an ongoing lawsuit about conditions inside ICE’s holding areas inside 26 Federal Plaza, where immigrants arrested around New York City are often taken before being shipped off to detention sites across the country.
Last summer, as ICE arrests surged, THE CITY and other outlets reported on the squalid and overcrowded conditions inside holding cells on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza.
Immigrant rights group Make the Road New York sued on behalf of people held there, and Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered ICE to make immediate improvements by providing meals, sanitary products, clean bed mats and access to confidential calls with attorneys for prolonged stays.
The ruling also dramatically limited capacity inside 26 Federal Plaza holding rooms, requiring at least 50 square feet of space per person, at least 8 feet away from a toilet.
At the time, Nancy Zanello, ICE’s assistant field office director provided an affidavit describing just four holding areas on the 10th floor and saying that the agency could hold no more than 22 people on that floor at a time given the judge’s rules.
But on Monday, Heather Gregorio, an attorney for Wang Hecker LLP, which is working with Make the Road New York, described a recent deposition of William Joyce, the Deputy Field Office Director of ICE’s New York office. In it, Joyce admitted that immigrants are being held on another floor — where ICE is not abiding by the judge’s rules.
During the deposition Joyce “acknowledged that immigrants are being held on other floors of the building, and that the judge’s [preliminary injunction order] didn’t apply to the other floors” in the agency’s interpretation, Gregorio told Judge Kaplan.
Joyce – who briefly seized the attention of theinternet last June for wearing a button-down shirt with a toucan drinking a Guinness during a confrontation with members of Congress – was deposed last week, though his full testimony has not been publicly released.
“Our very big concern” about his testimony, Gregorio explained in court in Monday, is that, “there are immigrants being held on other floors, and Joyce didn’t appear to know how people on those floors were being treated.”
Judge Kaplan quickly turned to Jeffrey Oestericher, the chief of the civil division for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, who was representing the Trump Administration.
“Are they being held on other floors?” Kaplan asked him.
“The short answer is yes…” Oestericher replied.
Oestericher went on to describe four additional holding rooms on the 9th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, which has never before been publicly acknowledged by ICE officials. He said people are generally held there for less than 12 hours and are often shifted back to the 10th floor as space becomes available.
“It is not my sense that it is overcrowded,” Oestericher said, adding that — even though ICE didn’t believe Kaplan’s order applied there — “many of the provisions” of it were in place on that floor, like providing adequate food.
‘Shocking but not Surprising’
ICE’s admission Monday drew ire from Rep. Dan Goldman, whose district includes 26 Federal Plaza, and who has inspected cells on the 10th Floor inside 26 Federal Plaza several times after he sued along with other Congress members to gain entry.
“ICE is not only lying to the Court, but they are lying to me,” Goldman said in a statement. On a recent visit, Goldman continued, he asked ICE officials point blank if they were detaining people on other floors besides the 10th, and was told that they were not.
“It is shocking but not surprising that Trump’s DHS cannot confirm that it is following the requirements of a court order,” Goldman said, who promised to attempt a visit to the 9th floor when he returned from D.C.
Make the Road raised alarm bells to Judge Kaplan in December, requesting he hold ICE in contempt of court because his order was not being followed.
On Monday, Gregorio raised new concerns, saying that during several recent depositions, ICE officials had admitted they were still not providing confidential legal calls or clear written instructions of people’s rights.
A habeas corpus lawsuit filed earlier this month and reviewed by THE CITY raised additional concerns.
One detainee arrested in mid-November, three months after Judge Kaplan’s order went into effect, described spending five days sleeping on the floor of a room with around 20 other men, not able to contact a lawyer. The man said he was not given any food until the second day of his detention.
As part of ongoing the lawsuit’s ongoing discovery process, ICE has provided documents on conditions inside 26 Federal Plaza since Kaplan’s restraining order took effect in August, but has not offered Make the Road’s lawyers any documentation of conditions before the order went into effect.
Kaplan questioned why the process was taking so long, given ICE’s unprecedented budget.
“You’re effectively representing an agency that has billions and billions and billions,” Kaplan asserted.
“The law department is not as well-staffed,” Oestericher replied.
ICE has also opposed Make the Road’s request to inspect conditions inside 26 Federal Plaza holding rooms with an expert. Oestericher said an inspector couldn’t be let in because, “there are law enforcement concerns about having people walking in and out.”
Judge Kaplan rebuffed those qualms Monday, ordering the Trump Administration to produce all records related to the 26 Federal Plaza holding cells, and to allow an inspection by mid-March.
