Civil rights and immigrant organizations denounced before a federal judge in New York the “inhumane” conditions in which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) holds dozens of migrants in the 26 Federal Plaza building, a federal facility designed for temporary detention that, according to the accusations, has become a prolonged and overcrowded confinement center.

The hearing was part of a class-action lawsuit filed in August 2025 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Make the Road New York and the law firm Wang Hecker LLP against the administration of President Donald Trump. The groups are seeking federal Judge Lewis Kaplan to make permanent a temporary court order issued in 2025 that prohibits ICE from holding detainees in “unsanitary” conditions.

According to the ACLU, more than 100 people have been locked up for days or even weeks in areas of 26 Federal Plaza that were only intended to house migrants for a few hours while their immigration cases were processed. The organization denounced that the facilities lack beds, showers and adequate medical care.

“The evidence overwhelmingly shows that people were detained in terrifying and inhumane conditions,” said attorney Heather Gregorio of the Wang Hecker law firm at the end of the hearing. According to him, among the detainees there were people with diabetes, tuberculosis and other serious illnesses who did not receive adequate medical care.

The plaintiffs maintain that ICE housed dozens of people in a single room of approximately 20 square meters. Some migrants slept on cement floors, used bathrooms without privacy, and received spoiled or insufficient food.

Among the testimonies presented before the court was that of Carlos, a young immigrant who claimed that immigration agents pressured him to sign a “self-deportation.”

"An agent told me that since my new hearing was not until 2029, I would have to wait those years locked up. I felt deeply depressed," he declared. The migrant reported having slept on the floor with dozens of people and having received only two meals a day “not suitable for human consumption.”

Lawyer Carmen González, representative of the ACLU, explained that the tenth floor of the building has “four cold rooms” made of cement designed exclusively for brief detentions, but that during the summer of 2025 the federal government began to use them as spaces for prolonged confinement while tightening immigration raids in New York.

According to the organization, many of the detained immigrants were arrested when they went to 26 Federal Plaza itself to appear before immigration courts or carry out procedures related to their legal situation. The building houses several federal agencies, including immigration offices and administrative courts.

Controversy over the conditions at the site increased in July 2025, when the New York Immigration Coalition released videos from inside the facility showing people crowded together, sleeping on the floor and sharing two bathrooms without privacy. The coalition also denounced a lack of access to showers, food and sufficient medicine.

In September 2025, several Democratic officials were arrested during protests outside the building, including New York Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Defender Jumaane Williams, who were demanding the closure of the temporary detention facility.

The order previously issued by Judge Kaplan requires ICE to provide mattresses, personal hygiene items and quick access to legal representation, in addition to preventing overcrowding and requiring adequate sanitary conditions. The magistrate must now decide whether to make those measures a permanent provision.