A Dominican man is detained by plainclothes ICE officers after his immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on June 6, 2025.
Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
Things can move quickly at 26 Federal Plaza: People arrive alone or with their families for mandatory check-ins at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s offices, then disappear inside the building as the Trump administration accelerates its vast machinery of deportation. In drab hallways outside of the immigration courtrooms on the 12th and 14th floors, federal agents in plainclothes and masks that conceal their faces linger to arrest people as they exit their hearings, often with extreme, violent force. Then down to the holding cells on the tenth floor of the 41-story building, where, according to the accounts of those detained and their lawyers, dozens of people are confined together in tight quarters. Many have reportedly been held there for days without access to showers or clean clothes. Some say they saw others sleeping on bathroom floors. (“What’s human about this?” one man who was detained there told the New York Times.)
Margaret Cargioli, a directing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, tells me that one of her clients, a Colombian immigrant named Jaen, was among several arrested on June 4 while waiting for an appointment at a nearby office on Elk Street. Over the course of several hours that day, more than a dozen immigrants were similarly detained there and hauled away into waiting SUVs. Jaen’s 12-year-old stepdaughter and his wife, Ambar, sobbed and chased after him as federal agents placed him inside a black Nissan while ignoring questions about where they were going. According to Cargioli, Jaen was held for 48 hours at 26 Federal Plaza, where he only received water and bread, before being transported to another facility. She had never heard of this length of detainment at the federal office building before, she says. “I would say it’s unprecedented.” Claudia Bernal-Perez, another immigration lawyer, described 26 Federal Plaza as a kind of black box. There is scarce information about clients once they are detained there. Communication can go quiet for days, she says, until a family member gets a call from a detention facility many states away. “Everything is in such a disarray,” she says.
The secrecy seems to be the point. Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez waited for an hour in the building’s lobby on Sunday to tour the tenth floor following reports about overcrowding and squalid conditions, only to be denied entry by ICE. “It feels like they’re turning 26 Federal Plaza into a de facto short-term detention center, given what we understand,” says Daniel Coates, director of public affairs at Make the Road New York. “Why they would deny members of Congress the opportunity to see what’s going on speaks to the shady way they’re trying to execute this whole deportation scheme.”
Outside, protesters have gathered almost daily, some trying to block ICE vans from leaving, only for police to respond with force and mass arrests. Police commissioner Jessica Tisch said her department didn’t need backup from the National Guard: “We have an army of 34,000 uniformed members of the service.” The mayor said he would not allow protesters to “destroy our city or harm innocent people.” By Thursday, the area surrounding 26 Federal Plaza had been walled off by a maze of barricades. Immigrants from across the city kept showing up for their hearings, not knowing what would come next.
NYPD officers drag multiple protesters away from 26 Federal Plaza on June 7.
Photo: Madison Swart/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images
NYPD officers drag multiple protesters away from 26 Federal Plaza on June 7.
A line of NYPD officers stand in front of 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan.
Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
Officers guard the federal building, where ICE officers inside wait to detain people leaving immigration courts and check-ins.
Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Brad Lander, NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate, walks an Ecuadoran couple out of immigration court as a volunteer with Immigrant ARC’s Friend of the Court program, which assists immigrants with the court system and helps ensure that those whose cases were dismissed can leave court without being arrested by ICE.
Police officers at a protest against ICE on June 7 used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Photo: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu/Getty Images
Police officers at a protest against ICE on June 7 used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
U.S. representatives Nydia Velázquez and Adriano Espaillat speak to the media opposite the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building after they were denied entry to observe ICE holding facilities there on June 8.
Police officers pull a person away from a group of other protesters in a crowd.
Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images
Outside 26 Federal Plaza, police officers arrest people protesting the recent detainment of immigrants attending their mandatory court hearings on June 9, 2025.
Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on June 9.
Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on June 9.
Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
A man says good-bye to someone as ICE agents wait to detain him after his immigration court hearing on June 10.
Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
A person holds a Mexican flag at a June 10 protest against ICE and deportations outside of federal buildings downtown.
NYPD officers bring arrested protesters to a police bus on that day.
Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
NYPD officers bring arrested protesters to a police bus on that day.
A protest against deportations and ICE on June 10 in New York City.
Photo: Adam Gray/Getty Images
A protest against deportations and ICE on June 10 in New York City.
Protesters at an anti-ICE demonstration in New York on June 11.
Photo: Jonathan Fernandes/Sipa USA/AP
Protesters at an anti-ICE demonstration in New York on June 11.
Police arrest a protester during an anti-ICE demonstration on June 11.
Photo: Andres Kudacki/Getty Images