More than a dozen New York politicians were arrested Thursday in a protest inside and outside a federal building used by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a detention center, which they have denounced for its poor conditions.
The building has in recent months been the scene of immigrant arrests by masked ICE agents, who then transfer them to an indoor detention center that is subject to a court-ordered enhancement.
Democratic politicians arrested
Among the politicians arrested, all Democrats, are City Comptroller Brad Lander.
Public Defender Jumaane Williams and State Legislators Julia Salazar and Gustavo Rivera.
As well as local legislators Marcela Mitaynes and Jessica González Rojas, according to local media and social media posts.
This is not the first time that various politicians have organized protests in this building against the ICE detention and deportation policies of the Donald Trump administration.
They are then arrested for civil disobedience and subsequently released.
75 activists and politicians arrested in NY
According to the New York Immigration Coalition, law enforcement arrested a total of 75 people today, mostly activists.
Including eleven politicians who staged a sit-in on the tenth floor of the building, where ICE holds immigrants and they demanded to monitor their conditions.
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani expressed solidarity with the cause in X.
He denounced ICE’s “inhumane conditions” in the building, which his colleagues wanted to “inspect.”
Order to improve detention conditions
In August, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan prohibited ICE from holding people there in “unsanitary” conditions.
He urged the government to comply with his order.
It includes a veto on overcrowding and required access to mattresses, hygiene and contact with lawyers, among other things.
Lander, in a press conference after his release, said that law enforcement did not allow the politicians access to the facilities where the immigrants they detained are being held.
In addition, they blocked the door with “tape and ropes”.
“When we were asked to leave, we said we would not leave until we saw the conditions in which our neighbors are being cruelly and illegally detained.”
“We made it clear that we would not leave, and then they arrested us,” recounted Lander, according to the digital media AMNY, as reported by EFE.
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