ICE Must Grant Manhattan Detainees Access to Legal Counsel

Immigrants held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Manhattan must be allowed to contact their attorneys and be provided with clean living conditions while detained, a New York City-based federal judge ordered Tuesday.

The temporary restraining order handed down by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York comes in response to a class action filed by immigrants’ rights advocates, who said detainees at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan are being held in unsafe, unclean conditions and have been refused access to legal counsel.

ICE’s holding policies violate the ...