Yves here. Even though a New York City story might seem a bit parochial, ICE, which has announced plans to “flood” the Big Apple, is also implementing detention conditions designed to evade oversight. Recall that per statute, Congresscritters have the right to enter ICE detention centers to see if conditions are adequate and potentially speak to particular detainees who think their capture was improper. It’s a sad testament to the effectiveness of propaganda in the US that we need to point out that immigrants have due process rights which ICE is flagrantly abusing. From Vera:
A core principle of the U.S. government is that all people have the right to fair treatment under the law. Due process of law, enshrined in the Fifth and 14th Amendments, requires the government to provide a person with notice and an opportunity to make their case in court before depriving them of life, liberty, or property.
Due process protects us from the arbitrary exercise of government power. It is the reason that police and prosecutors must prove that they had probable cause to arrest a person, that the government cannot arbitrarily cut off someone’s public housing or food assistance, and that civil court processes must be followed before the state can terminate a parent’s rights.
For instance, there are not anywhere near enough challenges in the press to the ICE claim that they are deporting criminals. In a significant proportion of cases, these are not individuals with existing convictions nor have they received final deportation orders.
Now to the able reporting by THE CITY on the latest ICE law-breaking approach (funny how an organization that likes to wrap itself in the mantle of being a law enforcer in fact has no regard for them), of detaining alleged deportation candidates. Recall that New York has strict limits, a mere 24 hours, for how long individuals can be held without having been arraigned. Note that ICE has the authority to arrest suspected immigration law violators, and then only based on the issuance of an administrative warrant. From Congress.gov:
ICE was established following the creation of DHS in 2003. The authority for ICE officers to arrest and detain aliens believed to have committed immigration violations derives primarily from 8 U.S.C. §§ 1226 and 1357.
Section 1226(a) provides that, upon issuance of an administrative warrant (otherwise known as an ICE warrant), an immigration officer may arrest and detain an alien pending a decision as to whether the alien is subject to removal. An ICE warrant is issued by certain immigration officials who have been authorized or delegated such authority and is exclusively for use by immigration officers who have successfully completed immigration law enforcement training. Unlike judicial warrants issued in criminal cases, ICE warrants do not require a detached and neutral magistrate; instead, ICE warrants require the officer to establish that “there is probable cause to believe“ that the individual named in the warrant is subject to removal.
If you think ICE has warrants for all the people it is rounding up, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
The norms for the legal limits for detention without having been arrested in New York City is only about 20 minutes, although there is no hard and fast rule. For arrests, the limit to detention before being arraigned is 24 hours for misdemeanors and 72 hours for felonies or designated offenses such as domestic abuse.
One suspects the reason for ICE resorting to the new gimmick of a non-detention detention center is the fact that is has been flagrantly violating the legal requirement to allow Congresscritters access to detention facilities. I have not kept up on whether any of members of Congress have gone to court over this matter. If they haven’t, it’s long overdue, if nothing else to throw down a marker.
Sadly, no one has come up with an effective response to ICE jackbootery. And Trump is causing chaos on so many fronts so that immigration coverage has generally fallen off the front page.
By Gwynne Hogan. Originally published by THE CITY on July 23, 2025
Federal agents detain a man after he left an immigration hearing inside 26 Federal Plaza, July 23, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Mayor Eric Adams yielded to mounting political pressure and called on the federal government Wednesday to immediately inspect conditions inside the shadowy ICE lock up on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. He did so even as City Hall continues to contest the idea it has any authority over conditions in the Manhattan building.
In a letter first reported by the New York Times, Adams asked the US General Services Administration, which owns 26 Federal Plaza, to conduct an immediate inspection of conditions there.
“As of mid-June, publicly available information indicates that individuals have been held at the facility for an average of 103 hours — more than four days,” the letter reads, citing reporting in THE CITY earlier this week.
The letter goes on to reference a video published on Tuesday by THE CITY that offered the first public glimpse inside the holding areas at Federal Plaza, which have seen a surge of detainees as ICE dramatically ramped up arrests in New York City in mid-May.
“Look how they have us,” the person filming says in Spanish, “like dogs in here” as the camera show around two dozen men in a room sitting on benches or lying on the ground with aluminum emergency blankets.
“The presence of Mylar blankets and sleeping pads suggests that individuals may be housed there for extended durations,” Adams’ letter reads. “At the same time, Members of Congress have reportedly been denied access to inspect the space, based on assertions that it does not qualify as a detention facility… The lack of clarity and transparency surrounding the facility’s current use raises serious concerns.”
A spokesperson for GSA didn’t return a request for comment right away. However GSA told THE CITY earlier this month the agency had “no oversight authority of ICE operations within the space,” pointing to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.
A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately return a request for comment about his letter and GSA’s claim that it does not have the authority he’s asking it to exercise.
Asked about the videos showing conditions inside 26 Federal Plaza, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Wednesday repeated her earlier denial that 26 Federal Plaza is a detention center and categorically denied any issues with how people are treated inside. The agency has repeatedly barred members of Congress – who are legally allowed to conduct unannounced visits at areas used to “detain or otherwise house aliens” — from accessing the floor.
Deflecting Its Authority?
The mayor’s letter came a day after City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams called on the Buildings and Fire departments to inspect conditions inside ICE holding cells on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, arguing the city has the power to enforce local health and safety regulations inside the building.
ICE detention data analyzed by THE CITY also showed that dozens of people are now being detained inside 26 Federal Plaza on any given night. The average time a person is held there, with no showers or privacy, is now 29 hours, with some held there for as long as eight days.
The public officials called on the city departments to determine whether ICE is adhering to local “building, zoning, occupancy, and fire codes — including but not limited to potential breaches of occupant load limits.”
And, they wrote, “if the 10th floor processing center is being used as a de facto jail or detention facility, that use could violate New York City’s local zoning laws.”
But Andrew Rudansky, a spokesperson for the Buildings Department, contested that the city has the right to enforce local laws at federal buildings, pointing to several examples of 311 calls about 26 Federal Plaza after which inspectors determined they had no authority to conduct an inspection in a federal building.
In other cases, however, the DOB did appear to conduct inspections there. The department responded, for example, to a complaint last year about an elevator inside the building, though no violation was issued. And there are three open DOB violations on the property for issues with the building’s elevators. Asked about those cases, Rudansky said he did not know why an inspection was conducted last year.
He also said the building had voluntarily registered one of the elevators in the building, though it was not required to. When the building failed to submit biannual reports, the department issued an automated violation, Rudansky added. Those violations would not stand up if the city were to try to collect fines, he said.
Rudansky said the department does have jurisdiction over construction equipment installed outside buildings like scaffolding, fences or cranes that would impact public areas around federal buildings, but doesn’t have the right to inspect conditions inside state or federally owned buildings. If they did, he added, their actions wouldn’t withstand a court challenge.
Asked about the DOB’s insistence that it doesn’t have authority to inspect 26 Federal Plaza, Oluwatona Campbell, a spokesperson for the comptroller, pointed out that the agency had previously responded to complaints there. The DOB is “now deflecting on its authority to inspect 26 Federal Plaza where New Yorkers are clearly being unlawfully detained on the 10th floor,” Campbell said.
“The City of New York should use all tools available to ensure the safety of immigrant New Yorkers as well as the hundreds of federal employees who work in the building,” he added.
Lander grabbed national headlines when he was arrested last month by masked federal agents who were staking out an immigration courthouse inside 26 Federal Plaza. The comptroller, who was a mayoral candidate at the time and was walking with immigrants to and from their courtroom appearances, was released several hours later without charges.
The mayor, however, dismissed Lander’s visit at the time as “more politics instead of protecting people,” adding that “it’s unfortunate that he took that action, because that is not the role of the elected official, what he did today.”
Katie Honan contributed reporting.
