In New York City, Federal Plaza is the beating heart of the neighborhood known as Civic Center. The square is lined with buildings that house institutions linked to government or municipal services: several courts, the statistics bureau, the Department of Homeland Security and the city's Department of Health.

At 26 Federal Plaza stands a towering 41-story gray skyscraper, called the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. It houses the New York immigration service, including an administrative court, and the offices that handle the hundreds of routine check-ins that are required of New Yorkers with immigrant status. This represents about 18.5% of the city's population, 37.5% of which is comprised of foreign-born residents, just over half of whom have been naturalized.

Ever since the Trump administration implemented its anti-immigration measures, people coming to routine appointments to update their administrative files have risked being arrested by federal immigration police (ICE) agents, who are stationed inside the building. Most ICE agents wear masks and sport no visible identifying signs. They wait in the corridors, with lists of names in hand.

The criteria by which individuals are included on the lists are unknown and unrelated to the decisions made by the administration in the building, as migrants reporting to this office are, by definition, not illegally living in the country. Once apprehended, they are directly taken to the building's 10^th floor, which has been turned into a provisional detention center. There, they can be held for several days before being transferred to detention centers elsewhere in the country or abroad.

You have 47.02% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.