(New York) A New York Federal Judge on Tuesday ordered the conditions for detention of migrants on Tuesday that the police have in a Manhattan center building, deemed unworthy by their defenders.
Seized by migrant assistance associations, judge Lewis Kaplan made an injunction concerning people selected at 10e floor of a tower which also houses a court in charge of migration issues on 26 Federal Plaza.
For several weeks, police have been going there every day, masked, at the exit of the hearings, to arrest migrants forced to present themselves to the judicial authorities to assert their requests, in particular asylum. A method qualified as “trap” by their lawyers.
Once arrested, some are then retained at 10e floor, sometimes for several days, under the responsibility of the American immigration police (ICE).
However, videos taken clandestinely, relayed by the media and social networks, show people gathered in a single room, lying on the ground with survival covers.
A man told the newspaper The City Having assisted powerlessness to the epilepsy crisis of another for half an hour before medical aid arrives. A 20 -year -old student reported having been forced to wear bloodless clothes for several days for lack of a hygienic towel.
In his decision, judge Kaplan enjoins the authorities to no longer have people on this floor except that they can benefit from a decent living area, clean mattresses for sleeping, in cleaned rooms three times a day, with elementary hygiene products, with access to drugs if necessary.
He also ordered the police to inform detainees that they have the right to make confidential and free legal calls, to ask for clean clothes and a private space to change, to receive medication through a lawyer or a family member.
This decision “sends a clear message: the ICE cannot maintain people in abusive conditions and deny them access to their constitutional rights,” reacted Eunice CHO, a lawyer specializing in the defense of people detained within the ACLU, classified on the left. “We will continue to fight to ensure that people’s rights are respected at 26 Federal Plaza and beyond”.
The number of undocumented immigrants is estimated at around 11 million in the United States, and the number of their arrests and detention has largely increased in recent months.
Donald Trump erected the fight against illegal immigration in absolute priority, regularly evoking an “invasion” of the United States by “criminals from abroad”.
