NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration Tuesday to immediately improve conditions at a New York City immigration holding facility, acting on complaints by jailed migrants that it is dirty, smelly and overcrowded.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, ruling in a lawsuit filed on behalf of detainees, issued a temporary restraining order requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to limit capacity, ensure cleanliness and provide sleeping mats in so-called hold rooms at 26 Federal Plaza, a government building in Manhattan.
Cellphone video recorded last month by a detainee showed about two dozen men crowded in one of the building’s four hold rooms, many lying on the floor with thermal blankets but no mattresses or padding.
In court filings, detainees complained they had no soap, toothbrushes or other hygiene products. They said they were fed inedible “slop" and endured the “horrific stench” of sweat, urine and feces, in part because the rooms have open toilets. One woman having her period couldn't use menstrual products because women in her room were given just two to divvy up, the lawsuit said.
Kaplan ordered immigration officials to allocate 50 square feet (4.6 square meters) per person — shrinking the largest hold room’s capacity to about 15 people after detainees said 40 or more were being jammed in. The building, home to immigration court and the FBI‘s New York field office, has become an epicenter of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The judge ordered the government to thoroughly clean the cells three times a day and provide an adequate supply of hygiene products. Addressing concerns that detainees weren't able to communicate with lawyers, Kaplan ordered the government to make accommodations for confidential legal telephone calls.
“My conclusion here is that there is a very serious threat of continuing irreparable injury, given the conditions that I’ve been told about," Kaplan said at a hearing Tuesday where a government lawyer conceded that some of the complaints were valid.
“I think we all agree that conditions at 26 Federal Plaza need to be humane, and we obviously share that belief,” government lawyer Jeffrey S. Oestericher said, adding that he agreed “inhumane conditions are not appropriate and should not be tolerated.”
The lawsuit — filed by the immigrant rights organization Make the Road New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union — sought court intervention to end what plaintiff lawyer Heather Gregorio called “inhumane and horrifying conditions."
Some detainees have been held at 26 Federal Plaza far longer than the 72-hour norm, Gregorio said.
Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, welcomed Kaplan’s ruling as a “step forward” but said the facility “must be shut down permanently."
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was arrested at 26 Federal Plaza in June after he tried to lock arms with a person authorities were attempting to detain, said the decision “is a much-needed rebuke of Trump’s cruel immigration policies."
In a sworn declaration, Nancy Zanello, of ICE’s New York City Field Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations, wrote that as of Monday, a total of 24 people were held in the building’s four hold rooms — well shy of the city fire marshal’s 154-person cap.
Each room has at least one toilet and sink, and hygiene products are available, including soap, teeth cleaning wipes and feminine products, Zanello said.
Sergio Barco Mercado, the lawsuit’s named plaintiff, said in a court filing that he was held at 26 Federal Plaza for two days last week after his arrest there while leaving an immigration court hearing.
Barco Mercado, a native of Peru who said he sought asylum in the U.S. in 2022, said his hold room was “extremely crowded," cold and “smelled of sewage," and that the conditions exacerbated a tooth infection that swelled his face and altered his speech.
“We did not always get enough water,” Barco Mercado said. "There was one guard who would sometimes hold a bottle of water up and people would wait to have him squirt some into our mouths, like we were animals.”
Another detainee, Carlos Lopez Benitez, said he fled violence in Paraguay in 2023 and was seeking asylum in the U.S. when he was arrested in July while leaving an immigration hearing. He said officers told him he’d be in detention until a 2029 hearing on his asylum application.
Lopez Benitez said an officer showed him a cellphone photo of his arrest and mocked him for crying. In his holding cell, he said, officers blasted air conditioning and doled out meals that “looked like dog food."
FILE - The United States Court of International Trade is seen in front of the Jacob K. Javits Federal building in this Wednesday, March 18, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - A man holds his immigration paperwork while handcuffed after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside an immigration courtroom, June 17, 2025, at the Jacob K. Javits federal building in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)
FILE - Members of the NYPD Strategic Response Group enter 26 Federal Plaza, where immigration court is located, June 8, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)
DEIR AL BALAH (AP) — Israeli strikes across Gaza have killed at least 13 people, according to health officials, as U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to announce his Board of Peace to oversee the fragile ceasefire.
Health officials and family members said at least one child was among the dead in northern Gaza following several strikes there as well as east of Gaza City. All 13 people were killed on Thursday.
Israel's army said Friday that it struck Hamas infrastructure and fighters in southern and northern Gaza in response to a failed projectile launched by militants from the Gaza City area.
The phased ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains in its initial stage as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final Israeli hostage in Gaza.
Officials say that Trump is expected to announce next week his appointments to his Board of Peace, which he has said he will head, marking an important step forward for his Middle East peace plan. The process has moved slowly since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect nearly three months ago.
The U.S. official and another official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov would be the board's “designated” director-general. Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defense and foreign minister who served as the U.N. envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the U.N. Mideast peace envoy from 2015-2020. During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease Israel-Hamas tensions.
Under Trump’s plan, the board would supervise a new technocratic Palestinian government, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and reconstruction. The U.S. has reported little progress on any of these fronts so far.
On Thursday, Egyptian and European Union leaders met in Cairo and urged the deployment of the international stabilization force. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Hamas still refused to disarm and called the situation “extremely severe."
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, which took effect on Oct. 10. Continued Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 400 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
The Israeli military says any actions since the ceasefire began have been in response to violations of the agreement.
Relatives and health officials say an 11-year-old girl who dreamed of becoming a doctor, a teenage girl and two boys in a tent camp were among those killed on Thursday. At least a dozen others were injured, hospital officials said.
On Friday relatives wept over the bodies of a 16-year-old girl and her two nephews who were killed in their tent in southern Gaza.
“What safety? What truce?” said Rudaina al-Qedra, the mother and grandmother of the deceased.
Other Palestinians who Israel had told to evacuate before the strikes returned to their tents in Gaza City trying to salvage their belongings. Some dug into the dirt with shovels and other with bare hands.
“We returned and couldn’t find our tents, our clothes, or our food,” Abu Tareq Erouq said. “We have been digging since the morning, and we couldn't find anything.”
Mourners carry the body of Ibrahim Subh who was killed in an Israeli army strike, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians attend the funeral of Abdullah Al-Abdullah, his brother Omar, and their aunt Lian Abu Shaqra at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, after they were killed in an Israeli military strike, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli military strike, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect damaged tents at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
The bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army strike are brought to the morgue at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli army strike are brought to the morgue at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Hamas militants search for the remains of Israeli hostage in Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The body of 11-year-old Palestinian girl Hamsa Hosou, killed by Israeli fire in Jabalia, is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
The body of 11-year-old Palestinian girl Hamsa Hosou, killed by Israeli fire in Jabalia, is brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
