{"id":159743,"date":"2025-08-20T00:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159743\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T00:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:32:17","slug":"ice-denies-doctors-entrance-to-federal-plaza-as-families-fear-for-detainees-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159743\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Denies Doctors Entrance to Federal Plaza as Families Fear for Detainees\u2019 Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week after a federal judge ordered<\/a> the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to improve detention conditions<\/a> for immigrants held at 26 Federal Plaza, New York doctors are demanding access to the facility to evaluate detainees\u2019 health amidst reports of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and medical neglect.<\/p>\n

On Monday afternoon, four physicians with the New York Doctors<\/a> coalition requested entry to the building to conduct medical assessments on the detainees, but were turned away by security guards. They were joined by representatives from several organizations, including New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), and 1199SEIU, who came to support their efforts.<\/p>\n

Also Read:<\/strong> ICE Has Done \u2018Irreparable Harm\u2019 to Federal Plaza Detainees, Judge Says<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cIf persons who are being detained do not have access to independent health status evaluation, then we must assume that DHS has something to hide,\u201d\u00a0said Dr. Steve Auerbach, a retired pediatrician and public health doctor who attempted to enter the building, addressing the crowd in a press conference right after the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cRandom people regardless of the profession they claim cannot just show up unannounced to our ICE facilities and expect to be granted access,\u201d a spokesperson from DHS said. \u201cThat would be insane,\u201d they added, and would put their \u201cdetainees, staff, and law enforcement safety at risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since May, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intensified<\/a> its arrest of people at immigration courts, an increasing number of people have been detained on the 10th floor of the U.S. governmental office building at 26 Federal Plaza after their hearings in the same building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Families of detainees, attorneys, and immigration advocates have been sounding the alarm for months about the conditions in which immigrants are being detained. Reports came out in June<\/a> and July<\/a>, before a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on the matter, saying people were forced to sleep on the floor, with limited access to food, showers, hygiene supplies, and medical care, often for days at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Congress members who have attempted to visit the 10th floor of the building in recent weeks and months, including Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, Nydia Velazquez and Adriano Espaillat, have also been refused entry.\u00a0 According to federal law, members of congress are allowed to visit detention facilities without advance notice.<\/p>\n

Migrants at Federal Plaza are held in what ICE refers to as \u201chold rooms,\u201d which are intended as a processing area for people arrested by immigration authorities in New York City and not meant to hold people for more than a few hours at a time. The agency said in June that any reports of overcrowding or unsanitary conditions were \u201ccategorically false<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICE has previously denied<\/a> using the facility as a detention center, and refused entry<\/a> to congress members on the basis that it is a \u201cprocessing center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But an investigation by THE CITY<\/a> last month based on an analysis of ICE data obtained through freedom of information requests made by the Deportation Data Project<\/a> showed that in May and June alone, 415 people had been detained at the facility for a period of at least two days, with some people being held for over a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Videos taken by a detainee who snuck a cellphone inside the facility showed dozens of people in a crowded room laying on the floor, confirming the reports of families and advocates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Aug. 8, Make the Road New York<\/a>, in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union<\/a> (NYCLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a> (ACLU), filed a class action lawsuit<\/a> on behalf of detainees against the DHS challenging what they said were \u201cinhumane\u201d conditions of confinement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Days later on Aug. 12, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order<\/a>, ordering ICE to significantly reduce the number of people held in the cells and ensure that each detainee had access to a bed, hygiene products, and their prescription medication, among other things.<\/p>\n

Since then, no reports have come out of the facility, although THE CITY reported that the number of arrests made at the immigration court plummeted<\/a> in the days after the federal judge\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is possible that at this immediate point in time there are no detainees. They didn\u2019t bother to tell us that. They just refused,\u201d Dr. Auerbach told Documented.<\/p>\n

Also in attendance was City Comptroller Brad Lander, who addressed the crowd and thanked the doctors who attempted to reach the detainees on the 10th floor.<\/p>\n

Also Read: <\/strong>Make the Road Attorney Explains What the TRO Means for Federal Plaza Detainees<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any good reports on conditions, but fingers crossed, with the federal judge\u2019s order, that they\u2019re listening,\u201c said Lander in an interview with Documented during the rally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, detainees describe being \u201cforced to sleep on the concrete floor next to the toilet, in cells that are either freezing or oppressively hot, without medication, an opportunity to bathe, brush their teeth, or change their clothes.\u201d As a result, the lawsuit claims, \u201cmany have fallen ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint also states detainees were denied prescription medication, including a stroke survivor who went eight days without treatment and developed \u201cdangerously high\u201d blood pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just really hurts to know that there are patients, people out in the world that are being put in detention centers, purely out of immigration status, as they\u2019re going to their assigned immigration hearing date, and then on top of that they\u2019re not being allowed to access health care,\u201d said Victoria Ngo, a family physician and member of the New York Doctors coalition interviewed at Monday\u2019s rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Doris<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Ngo added that having people confined in small spaces like these is a public health concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lack of access to basic hygiene, having people laying straight on the floor next to open toilets, not being allowed toothbrushes because it could be considered a weapon, things like that, that really sets people up to have diseases,\u201d said Dr. Ngo, who also highlighted the potential negative impacts on the detainees\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n

The temporary retraining order issued by the federal judge for 26 Federal Plaza will remain in effect at least until Aug. 26, 2025. Plaintiffs have also filed for a preliminary injunction.
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to keep showing up until we can make sure that, hopefully, there\u2019ll be an ending of courthouse arrests and detentions,\u201d Lander told Documented, \u201cbut at least that they comply with the federal court\u2019s order.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to improve detention conditions for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":159744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,7092,5412,8449,5410,32517,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-159743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-detainees","10":"tag-dhs","11":"tag-federal-plaza","12":"tag-ice","13":"tag-medical-neglect","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115058281337589629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}