As many as 11 Democratic lawmakers were arrested in New York City on Thursday while protesting conditions at an immigration holding facility.
The arrests occurred after a federal judge extended a court order this week, demanding improvements to the treatment of detainees. Eleven officials, including city Comptroller Brad Lander and members of the state legislature, were detained inside the government’s 26 Federal Plaza building in Manhattan.
They were attempting to inspect holding rooms on the 10th floor, seeking to ensure compliance with a preliminary injunction issued on Wednesday. The order requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to address squalid conditions and overcrowding.
The cells in question are closed to the public, which has led to allegations of unsafe conditions for detainees, reports The New York Times.
The group made it to the 10th floor, where they knocked on the doors leading to the cells but were not allowed in. Activists said that they witnessed the cracks in the door being secured with duct tape. Lander said they were there to ensure that ICE was complying with state and federal law.
Lander had previously been arrested at the same building in June when he was escorting a migrant who had a warrant out for his arrest.
The arrests took place just before 4 pm following a standoff which saw the activists engaging in a sit-in protest behind a banner that read: “NYers against ICE.”
Meanwhile, others, including city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, were arrested outside the facility, according to a spokesperson for the protesters, as they attempted to block access to a garage used by ICE agents to transfer migrants. Williams was among those who was chanting for the release of everyone in ICE custody.
State Senators Jabari Brisport and Julia Salazar, as well as Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, and her colleague Marcela Mitaynes, and Bronx state senator Gustavo Rivera and Brooklyn assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes were all among those who were arrested using plastic zip ties.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, later confirmed the total number of arrests was 71. McLaughlin targeted Lander as the apparent ringleader of the altercation.
“Another day, another activist politician pulling a stunt in an attempt to get their 15 minutes of fame while endangering DHS personnel and detainees,” she said.
In the wake of his arrest, Williams issued a statement.
“This afternoon I faced arrest alongside dozens of New Yorkers in a nonviolent civil disobedience to demand oversight of ICE’s inhumane detention practices. We can never allow this to become normal, we can never allow ourselves to look away from the horror being inflicted on our neighbors, and we have to use every tool available to fight it – including our own bodies, privilege, and freedom.”
In August, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, ruling in a lawsuit filed on behalf of detainees at 26 Federal Plaza, issued a temporary restraining order requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to limit capacity, ensure cleanliness and provide sleeping mats in the so-called hold rooms.
Cellphone video recorded last month by a detainee showed about two dozen men crowded in one of the building’s four hold rooms, many lying on the floor with thermal blankets but no mattresses or padding.
In court filings, detainees complained they had no soap, toothbrushes, or other hygiene products. They said they were fed inedible “slop” and endured the “horrific stench” of sweat, urine, and feces, in part because the rooms have open toilets. One woman having her period couldn’t use menstrual products because women in her room were given just two to divvy up, the lawsuit said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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