No showers, sleeping on concrete floors: The “squalid” conditions for immigrants in NYC

A new class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition of immigration advocacy groups alleges that undocumented immigrants have been detained in “crowded, squalid, and punitive conditions” in New York City.

The complaint paints a bleak picture of life inside the holding facility, confirming details previously published in articles by Gothamist and the New York Times, which the lawsuit also cites. It says the facility lacks beds, forcing those detained to sleep on the concrete flood—with the lights on—and sometimes next to toilets, or sitting upright due to lack of space. Immigrants detained have also been denied access to showers, medications, and hygiene products. In one case, a stroke survivor had “dangerously high blood pressure” after he did not receive his medication; in another, a woman who had her period was not able to receive any menstrual products and had to wear her blood-soaked clothes for the entire time she was detained.

Donna Lieberman, executive director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the facility “an inhumane disaster that has no place in our immigration system” in a statement.

According to the lawsuit, immigrants held at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan—a building that houses a federal immigration court on one floor and a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) New York field office on another—are being held in conditions contrary to ICE’s own policies.

The complaint alleges that some of the immigrants have been held in the short-term holding facility for as long as a week, even though ICE stipulates they should not be held in such spaces for longer than 12 hours. (Data from the Deportation Data Project shows that in May and June, immigrants were held for an average of 29 hours at the facility, and that 81 people were detained there for four or more days at a time over those two months.)

The lawsuit also notes that immigrants have received only two small meals per day at most, even though ICE says detainees should receive meals at least every six hours, and that those detained have been denied access to communicate freely and confidentially with their attorneys, as stipulated by the First and Fifth amendments of the Constitution.

The legal action comes as 26 Federal Plaza has been under scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers and immigrants’ rights advocates. Law enforcement officials have arrested multiple immigrants at the building after their court hearings. New York City Comptroller and ex-mayoral candidate Brad Lander memorably got arrested there as he tried to escort an immigrant out and was swarmed by ICE. And nine Democratic members of Congress representing New York City repeatedly demanded entry to the ICE facility at 26 Federal Plaza earlier this summer, to no avail.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in the Southern District of New York and names ICE, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons among the defendants.

Sergio Alberto Barco Mercado, who was detained in the facility Friday after a scheduled court appearance and has subsequently been denied access to his attorney, is named as the plaintiff, along with everyone else currently detained there. Spokespeople for ICE and New York City Mayor Eric Adams did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.