The New York Attorney General, Letitia James, accused the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) of violating the law by retaining immigrants in its headquarters in this city during days in inhuman conditions and asked the Court of the Southern District of Manhattan to issue an order to end that situation.
The signaling is part of a document that the Prosecutor’s Office presented as ‘Friends of the Court’, in the lawsuit filed against ICE by a group of immigrants arrested in its local office, in the Federal Plaza 26 building in Manhattan, which houses several federal agencies.
James indicated in a statement that his action seeks to end the illegal treatment of immigrants arrested in New York, including those detainees after attending the immigration court procedures and the routine registration appointments in the local office.
The lawsuit filed by the detainees alleges that the federal government keeps dozens of people in small rooms for days in poor conditions. As immigrants have claimed in their demand, they are overcrowded in rooms with a single toilet and a sink, and they are not provided with beds or sleep mats.
They also ensure that they only receive only 2 meals a day, there is no medical staff available during the night, and the visit of relatives or lawyers is not allowed.
The prosecutor argued that until June, ICE guidelines limited the use of the arrest rooms of their local offices to a maximum of 12 hours, “but recent reports have revealed that hundreds of people have been held there for days in unsafe and unsafe conditions.”
He stressed that among the detainees is a 7 -year -old girl who was arrested along with her mother and brother.
The Prosecutor’s Office asked the Court to give way to the motion of the plaintiffs and issue a preliminary order so that ICE complies with the law and improves the “inhuman” conditions of the detainees.
