ICE agents privately described horrific conditions in the 26 Federal Plaza holding facility in Lower Manhattan. During the height of an immigrant detention campaign in New York City, the facility regularly held well over 100 people at a time. Health problems spread throughout the facility, including multiple cases that required hospital treatment for cardiac issues and seizures. A detainee with tuberculosis was reportedly held for six days. Another detainee had monkeypox. In 2025, an ICE assistant field office director wrote that the week involved “gross contagion” and referenced multiple cases. A judge later accused ICE of stalling document production and agents admitted they had created an unreported portion of the building for their own use without public knowledge.
"At the height of ICE's immigrant detention campaign in New York City last summer, the agency regularly crammed well over 100 people at a time into a holding facility in Lower Manhattan, according to a class of detainees suing over their treatment. Health issues permeated throughout the facility, even according to employees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
"Nancy Zanello, a New York-based ICE assistant field office director, raged in a 2025 email that "This week has been one gross contagion after another," leading to "multiple" cases of detainees requiring hospital treatment for "cardiac and seizures.""
"Heather Gregorio, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the court that someone with tuberculosis was held in the jam-packed facility for six days. "And we have a guy with monkeypox," Zanello wrote in a text shown to the court, punctuating it with a facepalm emoji."
"In February, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan accused ICE of "stalling" production of documents in the case, and was reportedly "bewildered" when agents admitted to him that they had set up an entirely unreported portion of the building for their own use without public knowledge."
Read at Raw Story
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