Five masked ICE agents hovered over a courtroom on the 12th floor of 26 Federal Plaza on Friday morning. One of them stood with his arms folded, staring a hole into the doorway — its reflection shimmering in his sunglasses. Several others peeked through the door, one of them tightly gripping a list of “targets.”
Just after 9 a.m. on May 8, they pounced. As a woman left the courtroom, one of the agents grabbed her by her arm without saying a word. She pulled away and was instantly surrounded. Within seconds, she had disappeared to an undisclosed location.
The dramatic scene — one that has occurred often in the halls of Federal Plaza since last spring — unfolded about an hour before local U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman and his colleague, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus Pete Aguilar of California, performed an overnight inspection of the facility’s detention center. Inside, Goldman and Aguilar would later report, they discovered three men and that same woman being held there.
Goldman said ICE had no just cause to detain the woman agents apprehended Friday.
“Let’s be very clear, she was arrested after an asylum appearance where she received a preliminary hearing date for August, which means she has an active asylum claim, which, as former Secretary [Kristi] Noem admitted in front of the Homeland Security Committee hearing, means she is lawfully here,” Goldman told amNewYork. “Yet she was arrested, and we have no idea what, why or what’s going to happen to her.”
A woman walks through the hallways by ICE.Photo by Dean Moses 
. One Fed stood with his arms folded, staring a hole into the doorway — its reflection shimmering in his sunglasses.Photo by Dean Moses
For almost a year, 26 Federal Plaza has become ground zero for ICE arrests in the Big Apple. However, when President Trump assigned ICE to American airports in February amid the TSA staffing crisis and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, they all but disappeared from the courthouse.
Over the last several weeks, however, ICE agents have returned to Federal Plaza for sporadic operations. According to sources within the court, they would appear for several hours a few days a week and then leave without detention. Yet in the first week of May, Friday’s arrest marks the second this week.
“That is just wrong,” Aguilar said after joining Goldman on the oversight hearing. “The Trump chaos continues. This is the point of what they’re trying to do is to sow fear in our communities, and it’s only because of this oversight that we have the ability to see what is going on.”
While Goldman and Aguilar were able to see the woman who was taken into custody that morning, they say they were not able to speak with her. The elected officials said that DHS has implemented a new rule that prohibits them from interviewing detainees without filing paperwork 48 hours prior.
“In yet another effort by ICE to prevent Congress from conducting oversight, they now have implemented, out of nowhere, a 48-hour rule that we have to wait after submitting a privacy release form to speak with anyone in there previously. Before they implemented that rule, I was able to speak to detainees, but now for unknown reasons, and I’ve asked. They give no explanation.”
“Let’s be very clear, she was arrested after an asylum appearance where she received a preliminary hearing date for August, which means she has an active asylum claim, which, as former Secretary Noam admitted in front of the Homeland Security Committee hearing, means she is lawfully here. Yet she was arrested, and we have no idea what, why or what’s going to happen to her,” Congressman Goldman said.Photo by Dean Moses 
“Let’s be very clear, she was arrested after an asylum appearance where she received a preliminary hearing date for August, which means she has an active asylum claim, which, as former Secretary Noam admitted in front of the Homeland Security Committee hearing, means she is lawfully here. Yet she was arrested, and we have no idea what, why or what’s going to happen to her,” Congressman Goldman said.Photo by Dean Moses
Mask Ban?
The May 8 operation occurred on the same day that a new state law preventing ICE agents from wearing masks in New York took effect. Even so, the majority of agents observed at Federal Plaza on Friday morning still had their faces covered.
“Why are they still wearing masks?” One court observer asked as she passed them.
Speaking with amNewYork, Goldman explained that, while the law went into effect, the agents do not have to comply with it inside the federal building.
“That is a state law. This is a federal building. They are not subject to state law when they are on federal property. So that is why they are able to continue to wear masks. It does not take away from the absurdity and the unnecessary nature and the fear and intimidation that is intended by wearing those masks, which, again, they’ve been wearing at 26 Fed for almost a year now,” Goldman said. “This immigration dragnet is fundamentally un-American.”
The law would essentially apply to ICE agents whenever they are not on federal property. NYPD officers, meanwhile, patrol the streets of New York every day without needing to wear masks.
This all unfolded about an hour before Congressman Dan Goldman and chair of the House Democratic Caucus Pete Aguilar.Photo by Dean Moses 
This all unfolded about an hour before Congressman Dan Goldman and chair of the House Democratic Caucus Pete Aguilar.Photo by Dean Moses