President Donald Trump’s sprawling deportation campaign is creating distressing scenes of federal agents apprehending immigrants as they engage in routine activities, such as commuting to work or taking their children to school.
NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff recently witnessed such scenes while reporting from a New York City immigration courthouse, where he saw armed and masked federal agents detaining people who were attending their mandatory court check-ins.
“It’s been happening almost every single day for the better part of the last two months,” Soboroff said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehensions at 26 Federal Plaza, a federal immigration court in lower Manhattan.
According to local news outlet The City, which cited data from the Deportation Data Project, an average of 89 people were being held inside the building each night during the month of June.
The Trump administration vowed to target violent criminals in its crackdown, but data shows many of those apprehended nationwide in recent months have no criminal records.
Of the 1,453 people detained inside 26 Federal Plaza in May and June, 968 of them, or 67%, have not been convicted or charged with any crimes, according to The City. “Those people are characterized by ICE as ‘other immigration violators,’ a category including people who overstayed their visas or were in the country without proper authorization,” the outlet reported.
Immigrant rights advocates say many of the detainees in 26 Federal Plaza are being held in a “makeshift” detention center on the 10th floor, where they are subjected to “inhumane conditions,” Soboroff reported.
The Department of Homeland Security has said 26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center and is therefore not subject to congressional oversight. It has denied allegations of “overcrowding” and “subprime conditions” in the facility.
In just five hours inside 26 Federal Plaza, Soboroff said he witnessed federal agents apprehend five different migrants.
“The collateral effect of these raids touches people not detained, including the many families that I saw roaming the hallways,” he said. “Little children at their parents’ hearings, walking around with these agents towering over them, uncertain of what the future is going to bring, and if their family could be separated in those hallways next.”
Watch Soboroff’s report below:
