A federal judge has slammed the brakes on what he called a "black site" hiding in plain sight in Lower Manhattan — ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to permanently overhaul the overcrowded, windowless holding cells at 26 Federal Plaza after finding detainees were left to sleep sitting upright next to toilets under lights that never went dark.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued the 127-page final ruling and permanent injunction on Wednesday, capping a bench trial over conditions inside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, which houses ICE's New York City field office and has become one of the most notorious holding sites amid the administration's immigration enforcement surge. The case, first filed in August 2025 by the ACLU, the NYCLU, Make the Road New York and the law firm Wang Hecker on behalf of an asylum seeker held there, alleged dozens of detainees were crammed into rooms built for a fraction of that number, according to The City Reporter, which obtained video evidence of the cramped cells.

Kaplan found that hold-room occupancy on the facility's 10th floor ballooned from fewer than 10 people in May 2025 to more than 100 by August of that year, overwhelming rooms with no showers, no beds and no windows. Detainees, he wrote, were "objectively deprived" of sleep, sanitation, basic hygiene, adequate food and water, and proper medical care, according to Courthouse News Service, which reviewed the opinion.

"Essentially a Black Site"

"26 FED ESSENTIALLY WAS A BLACK SITE BEFORE THIS COURT ISSUED THE TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER." — JUDGE LEWIS A. KAPLAN

The judge, a Bill Clinton appointee, went further than finding poor conditions — he concluded ICE knew exactly what it was doing. "ICE knew, or should have known, that how it was treating detainees was wrong, yet it continued to do it anyway," Kaplan wrote, adding the agency did so "to inflict punishment on detainees and induce them to self-deport." He also found the government had misrepresented compliance with his earlier temporary orders, which first went into effect in August 2025.

The permanent injunction, which certifies a class covering all current and future detainees at the site, now requires ICE to cap occupancy at one person per 50 square feet, provide pillows and dim the lights overnight between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., guarantee legal calls within an hour of detention, keep medical staff on site, and supply clean bedding and hygiene supplies within a day of intake.

A DHS spokesperson pushed back on the ruling, telling reporters the facility "is not a long-term detention facility" but a short-term site where detainees are held only briefly "while being processed and awaiting transfer," and insisted the department "complies with all lawful court orders."

Rep. Dan Goldman, the Manhattan and Brooklyn Democrat who has previously been denied access to inspect the facility, welcomed the order in a statement posted to his official House website, saying it "is a relief and, if followed by DHS, will prevent the abuses from continuing in this facility."

Whether it will be followed is now the open question. Kaplan's opinion notes the government had already been found in "ongoing noncompliance" with his earlier, temporary orders — meaning the fight over what actually happens inside 26 Federal Plaza is almost certainly not over.