Federal agents inside of a Manhattan immigration court building on Wednesday made numerous arrests of migrants and observers, including a pastor from Queens.
A reporter for THE CITY witnessed about two dozen masked officers, dressed in plainclothes, staking out the lobby of 26 Federal Plaza, where immigrants go for check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as what had been routine court dates with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, on Wednesday afternoon.
Activists who were at the immigration court on Varick Street Wednesday described similar arrests there, part of what the Trump istration has said is a nationwide push to rapidly deport people who entered the country in the last two years. The arrests in New York City and nationwide are an unprecedented effort to target people attempting to go through the legal process and show up at immigration court hearings.
As night fell, several dozen activists gathered outside the court and tried to block vans filled with the new detainees from leaving the building. Dozens of NYPD officers from the Strategic Response Group arrived to clear the way, arresting several protesters who locked arms and refused to move, throwing them into the roadway and dragging them off in zip ties.
As the NYPD cleared a row of protesters, the gates to the Varick garage opened, allowing two vans with tinted windows to emerge. Several dozen masked federal agents emerged with them, shoving remaining demonstrators aside to clear the van’s path.
A video reviewed by THE CITY showed one person’s hand from inside one of the vans banging on the tinted window from behind a metal grate. Remaining activists sat down in front of the second van, attempting to block it, and soon they were arrested too, with at least 14 people detained.
“Eric Adams and the political establishment should be ashamed,” shouted Marlena Fontes, one of the protesters, as she was loaded into an NYPD van in zip ties. “They are allowing the NYPD to be used to break up families in New York City.”
Asked about arrests, the NYPD said in an unsigned statement Thursday morning that 23 people had been taken into custody for being in the roadway and blocking vehicular traffic after they were instructed to move. Eighteen people were issued criminal court summonses while five others were five arrested and charged, the department said, without specifying the charges.
Earlier in the week, Adams was repeatedly asked about courthouse arrests, following the detention of a 20-year-old public school student last week immediately after a routine hearing.
The mayor said New York’s sanctuary city laws, which limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and help ensure migrants can go to school and court appearances, meant he couldn’t ask his connections in the Trump istration to intervene.
“I’m not allowed to coordinate with them, and I’m going to follow the law,” he said. “You know me. I don’t break laws. I follow the law.”
‘Disappearing People Into a Detention Vacuum’
The chaotic scene outside the Varick Street immigration court Wednesday evening followed a slew of arrests inside that building and the second Manhattan immigration court building earlier in the day.
Agents at 26 Federal Plaza, most of them wearing masks, checked pictures of their targets on their phones or held printouts as they looked around for their targets. Over the course of several hours, THE CITY witnessed seven arrests: six men and one woman.
As targeted individuals exited the elevator at the ground floor, they were surrounded by plainclothes officers in masks. Some of the people detained were handcuffed while others were simply surrounded by agents who escorted them back into the elevator.
The Queens pastor, who was attempting to observe the arrests, was detained by the Department of Homeland Security, a video shared with THE CITY shows. The pastor wasn’t immediately available for comment and a spokesperson for DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment on their detention.
A male agent on the scene confirmed that they were with ICE, and directed THE CITY to the federal enforcement agency’s press office.
ICE spokesperson Marie Ferguson declined to provide specifics on the New York City arrests but pointed to an unsigned statement from the Department of Homeland Security that said the operation continued the Trump istration’s policy of pursuing “expedited removal” for people who had entered the country within the last two years. Many of those people had arrived under systems created or expanded by the Biden istration.
“ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been,” the statement asserted. “If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation.”
A 24-year-old truck driver named Singh was pulled aside by three agents inside the courthouse on Wednesday, his hands shaking as he produced identification and was questioned on his identity. After several minutes, he was allowed to leave when officers determined he wasn’t who they were looking for.
“What the heck is going on?” Singh said to a reporter immediately after his release, while declining to provide his full name out of fear of retaliation from federal authorities.
“They just made me so nervous. ‘Oh no, I’m about to be arrested.’ Thanks to God I had my paperwork.”
The new Trump istration tactic has immigration attorneys at a loss.
“Normally we tell people you have a legal obligation to go to your court hearing, and in fact, if you do not go to your court hearing there are severe consequences. You could be ordered removed in absentia,” said Harold Solis, an attorney at Make the Road New York.
“What’s happening right now might have the counterintuitive impact where people will suddenly start wondering whether it’s even OK to attend their court hearings if in fact what might happen is that.”
Jessica Olive, an immigration attorney with Unlocal, said she was representing a Venezuelan asylum seeker who had entered the country through the CBP One App offered under the Biden istration, was released on parole and had applied for asylum within the required one-year time period.
He was arrested inside the immigration courthouse at 290 Broadway last Wednesday as he was leaving the building after government prosecutors dismissed his immigration case, she said, and is currently being held in an ICE lock-up in Pennsylvania.
“This is an extremely scary time. This is unprecedented,” Olive continued. “We have never had this happen before where the government is seeking to dismiss the case and then picking people up and disappearing them into this detention vacuum.”
