As she made tea in her Sheapshead Bay kitchen one night in October, Larysa Kostak said she now appreciates the little things in life.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
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
\n
She said the conditions while being held at 26 Federal Plaza were miserable
\n
Kostak said she spent a week at the Manhattan facility, where there was no shower and a dozen women slept in a small room
\n
The Department of Homeland Security disputes that the conditions were subprime<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m some criminal. I did something very bad,\u201d Kostak said before breaking down in her first television interview since being released. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t. I was just like people who came to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kostak came from Ukraine in 2005, entering the United States without inspection, according to court records her lawyers have filed.<\/p>\n
In 2018, she applied for political asylum. Kostak said her case was set to be heard next year. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy life stopped in that moment,\u201d she recalled thinking.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
She said the conditions were miserable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was [a] small room. Thirteen or 14 girls inside the room. Sometimes it could be more,\u201d Kostak said in an interview from her living room.<\/p>\n
She said there were no beds, no pillows and one bathroom, where there was no shower or door.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used one foil blanket and start [to] make like the girls hold it and you could have some privacy there,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NY1 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security with questions about the specific conditions Kostak described.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false,\u201d said part of the statement NY1 obtained. \u201cAll detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Kostak said she was flown to Louisiana, where she spent three months, with more than 100 other women on her floor.<\/p>\n
There were showers and toilets, but the hope for returning to the city faded.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day is less and less and less hopeful,\u201d Kostak said.<\/p>\n
In federal court, her lawyers argued it was unconstitutional. Kostak \u201dwho entered the United States without inspection decades ago and has a pending asylum application and no criminal record,\u201d said part of the filing.<\/p>\n
It further added that Kostak \u201cwas never afforded any notice or opportunity to be heard as to whether she should be detained.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Judge Jerry Edwards Jr. ruled in late August that Kostak deserved a bond hearing and if it didn\u2019t happen before Sept. 8, that she was released.<\/p>\n
So last month, Kostak left the correctional center in Louisiana. So rare, she said, that others being held there took notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone 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,\u201d she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she formed a bond with the women there. One from India made her a notebook out of old medical records.<\/p>\n
And another took sponge cake to make Kostak a rosary.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to stay human on any situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kostak\u2019s case isn\u2019t over yet. Her asylum case is still pending, and the government is trying to have her detained again until then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m scared. I\u2019m scared. Because I don\u2019t know what happens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kostak\u2019s lawyer said she expects the judge to rule on whether the government can detain Kostak again sometime in November.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As she made tea in her Sheapshead Bay kitchen one night in October, Larysa Kostak said she now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25,98,3801,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-14416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-eric-feldman","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}