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Congressional Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) leaves the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after inspecting conditions for detained immigrants, February 18, 2026. Photo by Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n
by Gwynne Hogan and Rosalind Adams <\/p>\n
This article was originally published<\/a> on February 18 at 6:18 p.m. EST by THE CITY<\/p>\n Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now holding immigrants in two different cell blocks\u00a0inside of the Metropolitan Detention Center, a hulking federal jail in Sunset Park.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That news came from Representative Dan Goldman, whose district encompasses the prison and who toured the facility for the first time on Wednesday, speaking to several detainees who had been held there for months.\u00a0<\/p>\n ICE officials told Goldman, the first member of Congress to visit since the agency started housing immigrants there last summer<\/a>, that 191 people were being held as of Wednesday afternoon in two cell blocks with a combined capacity of 248 detainees. That\u2019s nearly a fifth of the prison\u2019s overall capacity of 1,300 people.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n While Goldman told THE CITY following his hour-long visit that he didn\u2019t encounter any major problems, federal habeas corpus lawsuits and interviews with immigrants locked up there in recent months described frequent lockdowns, inedible food, and difficulty accessing medical care.<\/p>\n Those are issues that prisoners charged with federal crimes or serving short sentences inside the prison have long described, and are well documented in news reports<\/a> and federal court filings<\/a> over many years. But ICE detainees, unlike people in the criminal justice system, aren\u2019t guaranteed attorneys to advocate on their behalf.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven sleeping wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d a 30-year-old from Guinea recalled in French. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, spent seven months inside MDC after his arrest following an immigration court appearance last summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n He eventually learned about pro bono attorneys at Make the Road New York through another immigrant being held there. The nonprofit filed a habeas corpus writ on his behalf in early January, and a judge ordered his release the same day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s suffering. That\u2019s what I went through there,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are suffering there.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldman said he didn\u2019t know when ICE had opened the second block for its detainees. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, didn\u2019t return a request for comment.<\/p>\n Lawsuits paint grim picture<\/p>\n MDC, the only federal lockup in New York City, houses notorious inmates like Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and Luigi Mangione<\/a>. Last June, it also started holding ICE detainees<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who are supposed to be able to conduct unannounced inspections of any place ICE detainees are being held, had been repeatedly denied entry.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wednesday was the first time Goldman attempted to visit since a court order last December<\/a> reaffirmed the law requiring ICE to let members of Congress inspect its detention facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n But while Congress members are allowed to enter other ICE facilities unannounced, Goldman\u2019s MDC visit had to be pre-planned because the Bureau of Prisons, which oversees the jail, requires advance notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t jump out that there were any serious issues in terms of the actual conditions other than being in jail,\u201d Goldman told THE CITY after the visit. \u201cThey were getting fed. They had access to the basketball court, rec area. There were a couple of TVs. They had access to computers.\u201d<\/p>\n But several lawsuits filed by ICE detainees held there since last summer paint a grim broader picture, with several describing difficulty accessing medical care.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Colombian man with HIV, referred to in legal filings as O.F.B., went more than a week without access to his preventative HIV medication despite asking staff at the prison for them multiple times each day, according to a federal habeas corpus case filed last November.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHis health deteriorated quickly, and Mr. B worried no one would ever help him and he would die,\u201d read his lawsuit, filed by Brooklyn Defender Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe felt feverish, sore, and weak. His lips got extremely chapped and they began to break and bleed, and his leg broke out in an infected pustule; that is when the medical staff at MDC took notice. Mr. B told them that HIV can spread through blood, and that his pustule oozing and his lips cracking and bleeding was a health hazard. Mr. B was finally given HIV medication that day.\u201d<\/p>\n His attorneys declined to comment further on the case.<\/p>\n Another HIV-positive detainee who spoke with THE CITY on the condition of anonymity described going more than two weeks without access to his antiviral medications.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was so stressed out,\u201d the man, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who was held at MDC for two months last summer, told THE CITY in Spanish. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing that keeps me healthy,\u201d he said. Without it, \u201cwhatever illness, even a fever, can be fatal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n In another legal filing, Jonathan, a 34-year-old Mexican man, described months of severe dental pain that prevented him from eating and sleeping. While he needed a tooth pulled, he was offered only ibuprofen. \u201cThe pain affects his ability to eat and sleep, he has been told to simply wait,\u201d his attorney wrote in a December filing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several detainees described prolonged lockdowns where they would be trapped in their small cell with a roommate for days at a time, sometimes for the entire weekend, or for several days if a high profile inmate was entering or leaving the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d lock us in for any little thing,\u201d the Venezuelan man told THE CITY. \u201cSometimes for three days at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n A Queens high school student, one of the few Bangladeshi immigrants held at MDC, spent a month there last fall, barely able to communicate with anyone. The 12th grader told THE CITY he instead tried to focus on improving his English. He suffered frequent stomach aches from food he said was \u201ccold, hard, or spoiled.\u201d Sometimes he opted not to eat at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n When he was released, his teachers and principal welcomed him back, offering extra support so he could keep up with his classes. \u201cYou\u2019re not alone, we\u2019re here with you,\u201d they told him, he recalled. \u201cThey love me so much.\u201d<\/p>\n The teen said he\u2019s trying to focus on his future, but the dark weeks he spent inside a small cell still come to mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my worst memory, I\u2019ll never forget about that,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want anyone else to go through that.\u201d<\/p>\n Email tips@brownstoner.com<\/a> with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on X<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>, and like us on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n ![\"Sun](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/012826_mdc-1-1024x683.jpg\")
One hundred Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are held at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park at any given time, January 28, 2026. Photo by Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771861773_119_.png\")
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