A federal judge has permanently capped the number of detainees who can be held at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding cells inside 26 Federal Plaza, siding with immigrant rights advocates who sued over squalid conditions on the building’s 10th floor.
The permanent injunction issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan extends capacity restrictions that have been in place since the summer of 2025, which saw a spike in ICE arrests in New York City. Those restrictions also required that immigrants detained in holding cells be provided sanitary products, three meals a day and access to their lawyers.
“The conditions of confinement to which ICE subjected immigration detainees at 26 Fed during the summer of 2025 were inhumane and unconstitutional,” Kaplan wrote in his opinion.
“By detaining far more persons in the hold rooms than ever was intended and for far longer than ever was intended, ICE objectively deprived detainees of sleep, sanitary living conditions, basic personal hygiene needs, sufficient food and water, and adequate medical care,” the judge ruled. “ICE prevented detainees from accessing counsel, who might have stood in the way of what it was doing.”
A group of detained men were packed into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding cell on the 10th Floor of 26 Federal Plaza in 2025. Credit: Video Courtesy of the New York Immigration Coalition
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
The decision comes over a year after immigrant rights advocates at the ACLU, the NYCLU, Make the Road New York and the private firm Wang Hecker LLP sued to challenge the conditions inside cells on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, home to several immigration courtrooms.
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The initial spike in arrests that New York City saw kicking off beginning in May 2025 is still the peak of ICE enforcement activity within the five boroughs through at least the end of July, according to the most recent data available through the Deportation Data Project.
At the time, The City Reporter obtained the first copy of a video showing the cramped conditions inside the holding cells, which was subsequently submitted as evidence in the federal lawsuit. Data analyzed by The City Reporter showed dozens of detainees were spending days locked inside these small cells, far exceeding the stated capacity.
‘Black Site’
ICE had categorically denied any “subprime” conditions inside the holding cells, but during a bench trial in the case in May, text messages, emails, and depositions from several top ICE officials offered as evidence showed the agency’s own staff felt otherwise.
One official described being “concerned about the safety of everyone there,” while another called the conditions “insane.”
Judge Kaplan first issued a temporary restraining order shortly after the lawsuit was filed in August 2025; conditions inside those cells have greatly improved since.
“26 Fed essentially was a black site before this Court issued the TRO,” Kaplan wrote of the temporary restraining order.
A mother was overcome with emotion after immigration agents detained her partner following a court hearing inside 26 Federal Plaza, Oct. 16, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
In a statement, Harold Solis, one of the legal directors at Make the Road New York, welcomed the permanent injunction.
“Today’s decision is a testament to the courage of those who endured and spoke out against conditions no human being should ever be forced to bear: severely overcrowded cells, a lack of medical care, and the denial of basic hygiene and human dignity,” he said. “Thanks to the bravery of those who came forward to support this lawsuit, this ruling will help ensure that no one else is forced to endure the same inhumane treatment at 26 Federal Plaza.”
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