Federal authorities arrested several migrants and observers throughout the day at a Manhattan immigration court building on Wednesday, according to a new report from THE CITY. Their reporter Gwynne Hogan was on the scene, and detailed how she witnessed “around two dozen masked officers, dressed in plainclothes” in the lobby of the federal building where migrants go for check-ins with authorities as well as immigration court proceedings. The federal agents reportedly had pictures of their targets, both on phones and printed out, for reference as they waited and observed people exiting the elevators on the ground floor. Hogan saw seven people arrested by the agents, who identified themselves to her as ICE.
The move follows the detainment of a Venezuelan public school student on May 21st, who was arrested after showing up for a court hearing on his asylum case. The student, a 20-year-old known only as Dylan, had come into the country through an asylum process instituted by the Biden administration, and was permitted to stay while his case was being adjudicated.
Both Dylan and the people detained on Wednesday have been caught up in a new strategy in the Trump administration’s mass deportation program, whereby government lawyers have asked judges nationwide to dismiss migrants’ immigration court cases so that they can be immediately reopened as “expedited removal” cases, putting them through a swift deportation process that bypasses the immigration court system. ICE spokesperson Marie Ferguson confirmed to THE CITY that “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.” Prior to Trump’s return to the White House, expedited removal was only used in cases for people detained within 100 miles of an international border.
In 2020, New York State has passed the Protect Our Courts Act, which prevents ICE from making arrests in and around courthouses, unless they have a judicial warrant. ICE tends to use administrative warrants, which are created via an internal process that does not require a judge’s signature, which judicial warrant does. The legislation only applies to New York State and municipal courts, however, leaving the federal building downtown open to ICE’s arrests.
Beyond the seven people arrested by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza on Wednesday, another individual was briefly detained by agents, until they realized they had the wrong man. The 24-year-old truck driver identified himself to THE CITY only by his first name, Singh, out of fear of retaliation from authorities. “They just made me so nervous. ‘Oh no, I’m about to be arrested,’” he told Hogan. “Thanks to God I had my paperwork.”
