New York Democratic politicians arrested at ICE jail protest in Manhattan
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New York Democratic state representatives attempting to gain access to inspect the conditions of detention cells at US immigration court in Manhattan on Sept 18.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – About a dozen New York state and local elected officials were arrested on Sept 18 during protests at a Manhattan building where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents operate holding cells cited by a federal judge for inhumane conditions.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and 10 state lawmakers were taken into custody inside 26 Federal Plaza after they were denied entry to inspect the 10th-floor cells.
A group was there to “ensure compliance” with a court order on Sept 18 requiring ICE to improve conditions at the lock-up, protest organisers said.
The city’s public advocate, Mr Jumaane Williams, led another group of several dozen anti-ICE protesters
Organisers said more than 75 people in all were detained by city police and federal agents at both gatherings.
Ms Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for ICE’s parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), put the number of overall arrests at 71.
The incident was the latest clash between federal authorities and Democratic politicians opposed to US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Mr Lander was detained in June inside the same building, where the government also operates an immigration court, while escorting a man whom ICE wanted to arrest.
In May, Representative LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, and Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, were arrested during an altercation outside an immigration detention centre in Newark.
According to Ms McLaughlin’s account of the incident inside the building, Mr Lander showed up “with agitators and media and proceeded to obstruct law enforcement and cause a scene”.
“He yelled inside the building that he was ‘not leaving’ until detainees were ‘released’,” Ms McLaughlin said in a statement.
“As a result of the chaos caused by Lander, officers of the New York Police Department and federal law enforcement arrested members of the group.”
She said the entire building was placed under lockdown afterward because “someone called in a bomb threat”.
Organisers said the comptroller, three state senators and seven state assembly members visited the building seeking to “conduct oversight” of conditions at the 10th-floor detention facility, a day after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring changes in its operation.
The 84-page court order cited complaints of unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, with up to 90 detainees packed into a 20 sq m room and forced to sleep on concrete floors, if they could even find a place to lie down.
It also found detainees were unable to bathe and shower and lacked basic hygiene supplies such as soap, sanitary napkins, toothbrushes, clean clothing or toilet paper.
Mr Harold Solis, co-legal director of Make the Road New York, said: “The cruel policy of subjecting individuals to degrading treatment and inhumane conditions is deeply disturbing. And now the court has made it abundantly clear that it is also illegal.”
Ms McLaughlin said the detainees held at 26 Federal Plaza included immigrants subject to deportation for criminal convictions, including weapons offences, drug trafficking and one arrested for flying drones near the White House on multiple occasions.
A New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed that multiple arrests were made at 26 Federal Plaza.
But neither the police, DHS nor protest organisers made any mention of charges being filed. REUTERS
