Federal immigration agents seem to have changed tactics

Federal immigration agents seem to have changed their tactics inside of immigration court in the city.

NY1 first took you inside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, where immigrants are being detained, this summer. Now, NY1 has revisited the building to see how ICE enforcement operations have changed.

What You Need To Know

Federal immigration agents seem to have changed their tactics inside of immigration court in the city at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan

Immigrant advocates say ICE is now detaining more immigrants behind closed doors during regularly scheduled check-ins on a floor where attorneys aren’t allowed

In November, White House “border czar” Tom Homan defended ICE operations across the country during a Fox News interview, saying, “Majority of people they’re arresting are public safety threats. They’re making your neighborhoods safer. They’re making your communities safer”

NY1 reached out to ICE several times to request an interview on the concerns raised by immigrant advocates, and ask for access to its enforcement operations in the building, but have not heard back

26 Federal Plaza houses two floors of the city’s immigration courts, and is much quieter these days.

Once a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in New York, video shot in late July shows dozens of armed masked officers arresting immigrants leaving their court hearings.

On a given day in December, fewer than a dozen federal agents from agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stand outside courtrooms.

Benjamin Remy — with New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), a nonprofit legal services organization — has been on the ground here since detentions began in late May. He believes the Trump administration is shifting its resources and focus elsewhere.

“We’ve seen less enforcement here outside of courtrooms at 26 Federal Plaza, but we have seen more street raid enforcement, more raids on homes, businesses,” Remy, a senior staff attorney with NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit, said.

In October and November, federal agents on Canal Street arrested 10 immigrants later charged with selling counterfeit goods.

In November, video appears to show ICE agents forcing their way into a Queens home without a warrant, looking for the mother’s cousin. Her children are American citizens.

In early December, residents in Jackson Heights shouted at ICE agents who appeared to leave.

In another November incident, ICE agents took a man from a car in Washington Heights to detain him.

Street arrests like those rarely end up in court. Rather, they can lead to detention and deportation.

“And then it’s ICE check-ins, so we’re seeing a lot of folks get detained, especially here on the fifth floor,” Remy said.

Remy and another NYLAG attorney, Allison Cutler, say they’re seeing less ICE activity on the floors with the more than two-dozen immigration judges.

However, they’re now getting many more calls about immigrants, including parents with children being detained during regularly scheduled check-ins with ICE, which are behind closed doors on a different floor.

“What’s very different about the fifth floor check-ins is that they don’t allow attorneys inside, and so unlike the 12th floor, where these detentions are very public, they’re getting caught on camera so that the world can know what is happening, these fifth floor detentions are very hidden,” Cutler, a supervising attorney with NYLAG’s Immigrant Protection Unit, said.

Earlier in December, Cutler and Remy learned about a fifth-floor detention from a faith-based organization.

“We just had ICE detain a community member on the fifth floor, so essentially this client who is going through her process, doing everything the right way, has a future date with her immigration judge for a future hearing, she was detained,” Cutler said.

NY1 reached out to ICE several times to request an interview on the concerns raised by immigrant advocates, and ask for access to its enforcement operations in the building, but have not heard back.

In November, White House “border czar” Tom Homan defended ICE operations across the country during a Fox News interview.

“Majority of people they’re arresting are public safety threats. They’re making your neighborhoods safer. They’re making your communities safer,” Homan said.

The Trump administration recently fired eight immigration judges at 26 Federal Plaza — a net drop of more than 10% there, bringing the total number of judges to 60 across three courthouses, according to NY1 reporting. Remy believes that complicates matters even more.

“Folks are showing up, they’re coming in, they’re expecting to have their hearing, they show up to the courtroom, and the judge is gone. If they’re lucky, maybe the clerk will be in there and can give them adjournment for another date. Sometimes they’re just turned away,” he said.

“But this is just adding another layer of confusion to an already just incredibly confusing and fearful situation. People are already scared and confused. This has only made that a lot worse,” he added.

Remy says fewer judges means more cases are being added to the more than 300,000 preexisting cases in the backlog in New York State, since cases don’t get resolved or are shifted over to judges who don’t have the same level of immigration expertise.

The Pentagon announced in September that it’s hiring 600 military lawyers as immigration judges across the country and eliminating job requirements, including having a decade of immigration law experience.

The Justice Department announced that one military lawyer has been hired as a judge at 26 Federal Plaza in New York after receiving training.