The family was manhandled by the ICE agents.
Photo by Dean Moses
People are being dehumanized and disappeared in Lower Manhattan — and if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.
Federal attorneys admitted at a Feb. 9 court hearing that numerous immigrants apprehended by ICE agents over the past few months while attending immigration court hearings at 26 Federal Plaza are now being detained on multiple floors of the building.
The revelation came after a judge ordered last year that ICE reduce the number of people detained at Federal Plaza after video footage from inside a detainment area there showed numerous men sleeping on the floor and sharing one toilet.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, seemed to conclude that only physical space was the problem, not the lack of proper facilities to detain large numbers of people humanely. It showed, yet again, an agency with blatant and dangerous disregard for those in its custody — seemingly choosing to dehumanize and degrade people rather than uphold the law, the constitution, and human decency.
Make no mistake: The vast majority of detained immigrants are not the “worst of the worst,” as people like Trump Border Czar Tom Homan continue to falsely insist. Indeed, a recent report found that nearly three out of every four people detained by ICE do not have criminal records or pending criminal charges.
The gross inhumanity of the conditions is arguably worse than one would find in any New York City-operated jail. The fact that this is happening in a city known for tolerance and respect for human rights points to a government agency that is clearly operating outside all acceptable norms of incarceration — and perhaps the rule of law itself.
In addition to flouting court orders, ICE is also working to acquire large warehouse facilities across the United States, purportedly to house more detainees on an exponentially larger scale. Will these facilities have proper infrastructure to care for the large numbers of people ICE seeks to detain in the months and years to come? No one knows.
But we do know the lessons of history: That self-made crises of this magnitude always lead down a darker road. The horrors of mass confinement of people, arrested because of who they are and not because of the law, always lead to worse horrors to come.
Congress must wake from its slumber and get ICE under control. It must not fund its operations until the agency abandons its rampant enforcement effort targeting law-abiding immigrants, including young children.
ICE must cease detaining people at Federal Plaza and other facilities that lack the proper medical, sanitary and living infrastructure to keep those in its custody safe, secure and healthy.
All ICE agents must also show their faces, identify themselves while interacting with the public, and abandon all heavy-handed tactics to interrogate and arrest people. They must stop targeting families and children and instead focus on the stated mission of apprehending criminals.
It’s time to put an end to this madness and restore justice in America.
