On Tuesday, a U.S. district judge had to order ICE to provide the bare minimum to detainees held at a federal building in downtown Manhattan.
During a hearing regarding conditions at the building — 26 Federal Plaza — a government attorney admitted that detainees did not have access to sleeping mats, medication or more than two meals per day, CBS News reports.
In a temporary order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that ICE must provide clean bedding mats for each person after videos revealed that immigrants were sleeping directly on the floor. Kaplan also stated that each detainee should have an area of at least 50 square feet in floor space as well as access to soap, towels and toilet paper, among other fundamental necessities.
Kaplan’s order follows a lawsuit from civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, which raised concerns about “inhumane” conditions at the federal facility, including that people were forced to sleep on concrete next to toilets, packed tightly in overcrowded cells and deprived of medication.
A reported video of the facility obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition that was published in July also captured numerous detainees jammed inside one of the building’s rooms and sprawled on the ground with nothing but aluminum blankets.
