Judge slams ICE for ‘stalling’ case over 26 Federal Plaza conditions

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge on Monday accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of slow-rolling a civil case over the conditions at an infamous Manhattan detention facility.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan slammed ICE for “stalling” the production of discovery related to how immigrants are treated at 26 Federal Plaza, a short-term ICE jail in downtown Manhattan that has been subjected to claims of overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions and violations of detainees’ civil rights.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Oestericher said the government defendants have been focused on other things, namely responding to a contempt of court motion that charges ICE with ignoring an order from Kaplan to improve the facility’s conditions. But the argument fell flat with the Bill Clinton appointee, who noted the agency should be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time.”

“You’re in effect representing an agency that has billions and billions and billions in appropriations,” Kaplan told Oestericher.

The underlying lawsuit comes from a class of immigrants who were detained at 26 Federal Plaza’s holding facility, nestled on the building’s 10th floor, after the Trump administration widely ramped up immigration arrests in 2025. The makeshift jail is just two floors below immigration courtrooms, where many of the detainees were abruptly detained by ICE following routine court appearances.

Despite claims from the Department of Homeland Security that the facility is merely a short-term processing center, many noncitizens claimed in court filings that they were held for days at a time and lacked access to clean clothes, edible food and calls with their attorneys.

Lawyers for those immigrants told Kaplan on Monday that they recently deposed some of New York’s top ICE officials about the building’s conditions, and what they discovered just raised more concerns.

According to the attorneys, ICE’s New York Deputy Field Office Director William Joyce said during a deposition last week that immigrants are now being held on other floors of the building, in addition to the 10th. And on those other floors, Joyce doesn’t believe that Kaplan’s oversight order applies.

Oestericher tried to clear things up for the bewildered judge. He explained that, since Kaplan ordered that no more than 22 inmates may be detained in the building’s 10th-floor jail at a time, ICE has started using holding cells on the ninth floor as they wait for space to open up on the 10th.

“I believe it’s four different holding areas,” Oestericher said of the ninth floor. “It is not my sense that it is overcrowded.”

“Are there toilet facilities in each room?” Kaplan asked.

“I don’t know,” Oestericher replied.

Kaplan hinted that he might clarify his preliminary injunction order to explicitly include all floors in 26 Federal Plaza, but left it up to the plaintiffs to make an application for it.

In addition to the presence of the previously unknown holding facility, the immigrants’ lawyers claim their clients are still not receiving confidential calls with their attorneys at the holding center — one of the key requirements of Kaplan’s order.

Some detainees say they’re still not receiving adequate food or hygiene supplies, another violation of his ruling.

“We were always hungry,” one since-released inmate wrote in a November court filing. “I barely ate anything; I would give my portion to my son and tell him to eat instead because I knew how hungry he was.”

Noting this case dealt with matters of “significant urgency,” Kaplan was unwilling to delay the trial’s May start date, though he did give the government more time, until March 16, to complete discovery.

“This is not a joking matter,” the judge said. “This is going to move. It is not just going to sit here for a year. Everybody better get used to the idea.”

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