5 Sep 2025

ICE Bars Observers from NYC Immigration Court

by Bonnie | | 0

At immigration court in Manhattan, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to allow immigration court observers to so much as set foot on an entire floor of a federal public building.

Federal agents have been frequently changing the rules at 26 Federal Plaza, a federal building which includes ICE operations and immigration courts.

Today volunteer court observers were not allowed to use phones in the building. On the floor where immigration court hearings occur, observers were stopped at the elevator by federal agents who said court observers are no longer allowed. The volunteers were forced to leave. Some volunteers were already on the floor, supporting immigrants, and were made to leave also.

The ostensible reason for throwing them out was “soliciting” because volunteers explained to immigrants why they were there and asked the immigrants, if comfortable doing so, to fill out a card with contact and emergency contact details.

According to regulations, the public has a right to observe court hearings, with some specific exceptions such as cases involving suspected domestic violence of an asylum seeker.

ICE did not adhere to the regulations and have them stay in the waiting area during such specific cases, as judges have previously done. They threw court observers out of that floor of the building.

(This is from a first person account posted publicly and supported by other volunteers.)

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