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Federal Judge Orders ICE to Improve Conditions at Notorious Manhattan Detention Site

HeadlineAug 13, 2025
Image Credit: New York Immigration Coalition

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday issued a temporary order mandating the Trump administration immediately improve deplorable conditions faced by immigrants in ICE’s shadowy detention facility on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. Immigrants have described being held in cells for days or weeks at a time, after ICE agents took them into custody at routine immigration appointments or court hearings, often in the same building. They’ve been confined to overcrowded cells, without access to showers, medication or a change of clothes, forced to sleep on the concrete floor, left hungry and without contact to the outside. The order also directs Trump officials to ensure people detained can make free, unmonitored and confidential calls to their lawyers within 24 hours of being taken into custody. 

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