Judge torches Trump admin over conditions at ICE facility
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President Donald Trump listens as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci).

A federal judge in New York City on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to abide by a series of strict and stringent rules as authorities continue to use a federal office building in lower Manhattan as a makeshift immigration detention facility.

In an 84-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, granted a preliminary injunction aimed at improving living conditions for people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 26 Federal Plaza, the large federal complex located adjacent to Manhattan”s Chinatown neighborhood.

Beginning this spring, ICE officials began using the 10th floor of the building as a “processing facility” for detained immigrants.

On Aug. 8, the plaintiffs sued. The 24-page complaint alleges the use of the 10th floor quite literally, noting several instances in which immigrants have been allegedly forced to sleep “on the concrete floor.” The complaint also quotes at least one administration official admitting as much.

“Detained individuals also are subjected to extreme temperatures,” the complaint reads. “Some 26 Fed Hold Rooms have been kept extremely cold. Individuals cannot get warm, especially while sleeping on the cold concrete floor without adequate clothing or blankets beyond a single aluminum blanket per person.”

The plaintiffs also alleged that the “abusive and cruel” conditions at the ICE offices violated the immigrants’ rights to consult with an attorney.

Claiming violations of the First and Fifth Amendments, the lawsuit aims to secure a host of improvements to the 10th floor holding areas in the realm of food, sleeping conditions, cleanliness, space, and privacy — particularly in the realm of access to legal help.

Now, after a month of motions practice, the court found the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on claims “the conditions of confinement at the 26 Fed Hold Rooms violate the First and Fifth Amendments and that they have been seriously and irreparably injured and/or face a clear threat of imminent serious and irreparable injury absent judicial relief.”

The contours of that relief are documented by way of a laundry list of commands in an accompanying six-page injunction.

Vindicating several specific requests, the order grants class certification for the plaintiffs, prohibits ICE from detaining people in spaces with less than 50 square feet per person, requires ICE agents to provide sleeping mats and access to adequate soap and other hygiene products as well as thrice-daily meals. The order also ensures people are allowed to make free, unmonitored, and confidential calls to their lawyers within 24 hours of being detained.

The judge also took immigration officials to task for their choice of location and the associated behavior within the facility – while dismissing the government’s concerns that the standards imposed by the injunction would prove difficult to implement.

“Defendants have chosen to use the 26 Fed as a de facto medium term detention facility while failing to comply with the Constitution and their own nationwide standards governing detention facilities,” the opinion reads. “The logistical difficulties defendants invoke flow from that their own decisions to place the volume of arrests above their duty to adhere to the law in the treatment of those arrested. They may not bootstrap the consequences of ignoring the Constitution and their own standards into a cognizable harm that outweighs ongoing constitutional injury.”

The Wednesday ruling follows a temporary restraining order issued by the court in August which provided much of the same relief – but without any legal analysis or conclusions about ICE’s actions.

“Today’s ruling is an important win for immigrants’ rights and affirms what we’ve known all along: ICE’s conduct at 26 Federal Plaza is inhumane, illegal and a direct violation of the Constitution,” ACLU attorney Eunice Cho said in a press release lauding the court’s order. “No person should be denied medical care, access to a lawyer, or basic dignity when they are held in government custody – and we’ll continue to fight to hold ICE accountable.”

Kaplan also offered the government an off-ramp of sorts.

“The Court’s preliminary injunction will not prevent defendants from pursuing the policies they have set,” the opinion goes on. “It merely will require that they conform to the demands of the Constitution in doing so. It is up to defendants to choose whether they wish to expend resources to conform 26 Fed to those requirements, or to alter the rate at which they are funneling arrestees into 26 Fed and other facilities, or to select or obtain facilities where detainees can be held in a humane and constitutional manner.”

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