'Like dogs': Video appears to show migrants held in federal building in NYC
New video obtained by ABC News purports to show the conditions inside a so-called "holding facility" for detained migrants in a federal building in New York City.
The videos were shared by a detainee with a local civic group, who then provided them to New York State Assembly member Catalina Cruz. The New York Immigration Coalition shared that video widely in a press release on Tuesday.
Assemblywoman Cruz told ABC News the man who shared the video, a constituent of hers, was recently detained at an immigration hearing in New York City and was being held at the facility on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan's Foley Square. The videos have been blurred, and the voice of the man filming has been edited by the civic group to protect the man's identity.
The video appears to show over a dozen people inside a room, with several of them lying on the floor on thermal blankets and sitting on benches. The person who filmed the video also showed two toilets that are separated from the rest of the men by only a waist-high wall.
"Look how they have us, the situation that we're in... like dogs in here," the man filming the video says in Spanish at one point.
"The American dream. Immigration, 26 Federal Plaza," the man filming the video adds.
In a press release, the New York Immigration Coalition said the videos appear to show that the facility is being used as a detention center rather than merely a holding center, and should, as such, be subject to oversight by Congress.
Last month, Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman said they attempted to gain access to the area inside the federal building where migrants were being allegedly detained, but were denied access by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"The question is, why can't we go in? What are they hiding?" Goldman asked reporters at the time. "This is unacceptable. It is unacceptable that they denied our access, and we will be continuing to push for access with the executives at the Department of Homeland Security, because they are violating the law."
But DHS has continued to claim migrants are only being "briefly processed" there before being transferred elsewhere.
"26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center. It is a processing center where illegal aliens are briefly processed to be transferred to an ICE detention facility," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement in response to the videos released Tuesday.
"Any claim that there is overcrowding or subprime conditions at ICE facilities are categorically false. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. As we arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens and public safety threats from the U.S., ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding. Secretary Noem has called on states and local governments to help with bed and detention space capacity. Despite a historic number of injunctions, DHS is working rapidly overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination—home," she added.
Immigrant advocates have warned that people held at the facility are being provided minimal food and are being placed in unsanitary conditions.
Assemblywoman Cruz said she found the videos to be "extremely angering" and said she's not surprised that DHS has previously prevented lawmakers from touring the area.
"I mean, it's by design, it's on purpose, they don't want people to see exactly what they're doing, which is violating people's human rights, making sure that people feel desperate, isolated, alone, scared. This is exactly what they want to do, and they're succeeding at it," she told ABC News.
"We need to fight back to make sure that folks are treated with dignity, that folks have their day in court, that folks have access to the bare minimum, which is food, medication, a bed, a bathroom," Cruz said.
