Since Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown began, the administration’s various efforts have sparked immense criticism, including the conditions at some of the ICE detention centers. On Tuesday, during a hearing regarding the conditions at a federal building in downtown Manhattan, where detainees are being held, a government attorney admitted that the immigrants were not provided with some of the bare minimum essentials.
According to a report by CBS News, the individual confessed that the detainees at 26 Federal Plaza did not have access to sleeping mats, more than two meals per day, or even medication. The inhumane conditions at the temporary detention center shocked many, including the U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who ordered ICE to provide the detainees with the bare minimum.
The report states that the temporary court order ruled that the administration must provide clean bedding mats, along with each detainee having 50 square feet in floor space. The judge also ordered that they should be provided with soap, towels, toilet paper, and other essential items.
The court ruling came after several clips of the detainees sleeping directly on the floor at the federal building sparked massive controversy. A lawsuit was also filed by a few civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, which demanded that the immigrants should not be held under such “inhumane” conditions.
The videos from the federal building that spread through social media further revealed how some of the detainees were forced to sleep on a concrete floor next to toilets. Another video obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition revealed that many of them were packed tightly inside one of the building’s rooms, while sleeping directly on the floor with nothing but aluminium blankets.
🚨 BREAKING: new video shows ICE is operating a detention facility on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, where people are being held for days or weeks at a time without showers, medication or a change of clothes, sleeping on the floor, and with minimal food and outside contact pic.twitter.com/vdy412EH1Y
— New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) (@thenyic) July 22, 2025
Kaplan’s order also added that the immigrants who are being held at the building should be able to request medical care. The court also emphasized that the detainees should be able to access prescribed medications or have their family members bring them.
However, Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary of public affairs, mocked the court order as “driven by complete fiction.” Despite the government attorney’s admission, McLaughlin denied the allegations of the “inhumane” conditions at the building.
In a statement, she said, “26 Federal Plaza operates as a processing center, brief intake for illegal aliens, and then transfer to an ICE detention center meeting national standards for care and custody, which are in most cases better than facilities which detain Americans.”
Leaked footage confirms what we’ve known all along: 26 Federal Plaza is a secret detention site where immigrants are being held in overcrowded, inhumane conditions.
@DHSgov has spent months lying to cover it up. We need answers. We demand accountability. pic.twitter.com/1JK8HaNUm8— Rep. Nydia Velazquez (@NydiaVelazquez) July 22, 2025
Despite Tricia’s statement, it is hard to deny that the immigrants have been getting “unfair” treatment from ICE. Not just the 26 federal plaza, several detention centers have been described as “inhumane” by basic standards. According to Huffpost, this particular building, which also houses an immigration court, was initially used to hold detainees for a very short period. However, advocates claim that some of the immigrants have been there for over a week.
Judge Kaplan’s order also states that detainees should be allowed to make confidential calls to legal counsel, which immigrant lawyers were previously denied.
