Immigration and Customs Enforcement has expanded its presence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, now holding immigrants in two separate cell blocks within the notorious federal jail, according to Rep. Dan Goldman.
Goldman, whose district includes the prison, conducted the first congressional visit to the facility since ICE began housing immigrants there last summer. During his Wednesday tour, ICE officials told the congressman that 191 people were being held in two cell blocks with a combined capacity of 248 detainees, according to Goldman’s office.
The immigrant detainees now occupy nearly one-fifth of the prison’s total capacity of 1,300 people, Goldman said following his hour-long visit.
While Goldman told reporters he didn’t encounter major problems during his inspection, federal lawsuits and interviews with former detainees paint a different picture of conditions inside the facility. Court filings describe frequent lockdowns, inedible food, and difficulty accessing medical care.
“Even sleeping wasn’t easy,” said a 30-year-old man from Guinea who spent seven months at MDC after his arrest following an immigration court appearance last summer. The man, who requested anonymity, was released in January after Make the Road New York filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf.
“It’s suffering. That’s what I went through there,” he said. “People are suffering there.”
MDC, the only federal lockup in New York City, houses high-profile inmates including Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and Luigi Mangione. The facility began holding ICE detainees in June, but Goldman said he didn’t know when the agency opened the second cell block for immigrants.
Members of Congress are legally required to have access to ICE detention facilities for unannounced inspections, but representatives had been repeatedly denied entry to MDC until last December, when a court order reaffirmed the inspection requirement. Unlike other ICE facilities where congressional visits can be unannounced, Goldman’s MDC visit required advance planning because the Bureau of Prisons, which oversees the jail, requires prior notice.
“It didn’t jump out that there were any serious issues in terms of the actual conditions other than being in jail,” Goldman said after his visit. “They were getting fed. They had access to the basketball court, rec area. There were a couple of TVs. They had access to computers.”
However, federal habeas corpus lawsuits filed by ICE detainees describe more serious problems. One case, filed last November by Brooklyn Defender Services, involves a Colombian man with HIV who went more than a week without access to his preventative medication despite asking prison staff multiple times daily, according to court documents.
“His health deteriorated quickly, and Mr. B worried no one would ever help him and he would die,” the lawsuit states. The filing describes how the man “felt feverish, sore and weak” with chapped, bleeding lips and an infected pustule on his leg before medical staff intervened.
The conditions described in lawsuits mirror longstanding problems at MDC that federal prisoners and those serving short sentences have reported for years, documented in news reports and court filings. However, ICE detainees face a particular disadvantage because, unlike people in the criminal justice system, they aren’t guaranteed attorneys to advocate on their behalf.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to requests for comment about conditions at the facility or when the second cell block was opened for immigrant detainees.
The expansion of ICE detention at MDC represents a significant increase in the federal government’s use of the Brooklyn facility for immigration enforcement, raising questions about oversight and conditions for detainees who may be held for months while their cases proceed through immigration courts.
