Overview

• U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan granted a preliminary injunction requiring at least 50 square feet per detainee, three daily meals, hygiene supplies, sleeping mats and fresh bedding.
• The order mandates confidential attorney access for anyone held more than 24 hours and directs ICE to ensure cleanliness and meaningful phone access.
• Kaplan described prior treatment as unconstitutional and inhumane and left the facility open, instructing ICE to comply, reduce inflow or use alternative sites.
• The ruling follows a class action led by Sergio Alberto Barco Mercado and backed by the ACLU, NYCLU and Make the Road New York, with affidavits and video documenting overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.
• Kaplan found ICE’s testimony asserting low current occupancy unpersuasive given evidence of severe crowding after a late‑May arrest surge, and ICE and DHS did not immediately comment.