As she made tea in her Sheapshead Bay kitchen one night in October, Larysa Kostak said she now appreciates the little things in life.
It all stems back to what she experienced this summer. What she expected to be a routine court appearance in her pending asylum case turned into three months locked up.
What You Need To Know
A woman who has been in the United States since 2005 was recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a court appearance in Lower Manhattan
She said the conditions while being held at 26 Federal Plaza were miserable
Kostak said she spent a week at the Manhattan facility, where there was no shower and a dozen women slept in a small room
The Department of Homeland Security disputes that the conditions were subprime
“I feel like I’m some criminal. I did something very bad,” Kostak said before breaking down in her first television interview since being released. “But I didn’t. I was just like people who came to the court.”
Kostak came from Ukraine in 2005, entering the United States without inspection, according to court records her lawyers have filed.
In 2018, she applied for political asylum. Kostak said her case was set to be heard next year.
In June, she had an appointment at the federal immigration courthouse on Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Kostak said when the hearing concluded, there were three ICE officers waiting outside her courtroom.
“My life stopped in that moment,” she recalled thinking.
Kostak said the officers bound by her hands, waist and feet, as she was then transported to the nearby main federal immigration facility in Lower Manhattan: 26 Federal Plaza.
She said the conditions were miserable.
“It was [a] small room. Thirteen or 14 girls inside the room. Sometimes it could be more,” Kostak said in an interview from her living room.
She said there were no beds, no pillows and one bathroom, where there was no shower or door.
“We used one foil blanket and start [to] make like the girls hold it and you could have some privacy there,” she said.
NY1 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security with questions about the specific conditions Kostak described.
“Any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false,” said part of the statement NY1 obtained. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
Eventually, Kostak said she was flown to Louisiana, where she spent three months, with more than 100 other women on her floor.
There were showers and toilets, but the hope for returning to the city faded.
“Every day is less and less and less hopeful,” Kostak said.
In federal court, her lawyers argued it was unconstitutional. Kostak ”who entered the United States without inspection decades ago and has a pending asylum application and no criminal record,” said part of the filing.
It further added that Kostak “was never afforded any notice or opportunity to be heard as to whether she should be detained.”
And Judge Jerry Edwards Jr. ruled in late August that Kostak deserved a bond hearing and if it didn’t happen before Sept. 8, that she was released.
So last month, Kostak left the correctional center in Louisiana. So rare, she said, that others being held there took notice.
“Everyone wanted to give me a hug. And some of them cry. And I think they think when they touch me, they will be released or going back home soon,” she said.
She said she formed a bond with the women there. One from India made her a notebook out of old medical records.
And another took sponge cake to make Kostak a rosary.
“You have to stay human on any situation,” she said.
Kostak’s case isn’t over yet. Her asylum case is still pending, and the government is trying to have her detained again until then.
“I’m scared. I’m scared. Because I don’t know what happens,” she said.
Kostak’s lawyer said she expects the judge to rule on whether the government can detain Kostak again sometime in November.