Overview:
Greater than half of the practically 200 immigration detainees held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart don’t have any felony file, in accordance with a 2026 DHS letter. The power has not undergone required ICE compliance inspections, elevating considerations about detention circumstances and oversight.
Practically 200 folks at the moment are detained at New York Metropolis’s solely immigration detention middle — and greater than half don’t have any felony file, in accordance with a February 2026 Division of Homeland Safety letter obtained by Documented.
The power, the Metropolitan Detention Heart (MDC) in Brooklyn’s Sundown Park, the place detainees face among the longest stays within the state, has additionally by no means been inspected beneath U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) personal compliance requirements, and to date no inspection is deliberate.
The brand new particulars got here to gentle this week as Congressman Dan Goldman toured the ability, which is one in every of eight federal prisons nationwide that started holding detainees final yr amid the surge in ICE’s crackdown on immigrants in New York Metropolis and past.
As a part of an settlement between the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC — which has additionally held Luigi Mangione, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Nicolas Maduro — would moreover maintain immigrants detained in raids.
Inside eight months of this contract taking impact in New York, 176 immigrant detainees have been held at MDC, which homes 1,363 inmates general. Fewer than 24 p.c of the detained immigrants have felony convictions, DHS mentioned in a letter dated February 27, 2026. About 19 p.c had “pending costs.”
However for over 50 p.c of these being held on the facility, DHS offered no particulars of any costs. The figures got here in response to 9 questions posed by Goldman, who, in February, after months of rejections, grew to become the primary lawmaker to go to the ICE facility on the MDC, which is in his Congressional district. And he returned once more on Tuesday.
This time, the prosecutor-turned-lawmaker — who faces former Comptroller Brad Lander in a main problem for his seat this fall — met three males detained by ICE on the Brooklyn jail. None had felony convictions. Two have been political asylum candidates from Georgia; one other had fled Ukraine searching for refuge within the U.S.
“We have been promised by this President, and his henchmen — together with Stephen Miller — that this administration would go after the worst of the worst to deport,” Goldman mentioned exterior the gates of the MDC.
“As a substitute, nearly all of them in right here don’t have any severe felony information and lots of don’t have any arrests in any respect,” he mentioned.
ICE didn’t reply to Documented’s request for remark, together with a query about what the fees are towards a minimum of 100 folks detained on the Brooklyn MDC.
ICE’s Workplace of Detention Oversight (ODO) is remitted to examine amenities that maintain 10 or extra noncitizen detainees for greater than 72 hours. The Brooklyn MDC has a mean size of keep of 52 days — greater than six different ICE amenities in New York State, and equal to the detention middle in Orange County.
But, in accordance with DHS information, it’s the solely ICE detention middle statewide to have neither gone by a facility inspection but, nor have one scheduled — one thing that’s extremely uncommon.
In October 2024, for instance, ODO inspectors performed a three-day inspection at New York’s ICE facility in Batavia, following up on a previous assessment that had discovered compliance points in meals companies, medical care, custody classification, and incidents of use of power. This time, personnel interviewed 23 detainees. “One detainee reported suspected sexual abuse of one other detainee,” famous the 13-page, semi-redacted report reviewed by Documented.
The unit additionally discovered three incidents of power through which employees “didn’t take the time” to hunt alternate options earlier than deploying chemical brokers, getting into rooms, and forcibly eradicating detainees.
General, the inspection in Batavia discovered non-compliance with 10 of 29 requirements.
Two months later, ODO inspectors performed an analogous assessment at one other New York ICE facility in Orange County. Although operated by the county sheriff’s division, the unit interviewed 33 detainees; a minimum of two required higher medical care.
Simply weeks earlier than Brooklyn MDC’s east constructing grew to become an ICE detention facility final summer time, a federal correctional officer was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing an inmate within the jail on a minimum of two events, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned in a press launch concerning the officer’s indictment simply final month.
Since MDC started holding immigrants, a minimum of 12 ICE amenities have been inspected nationwide.
Why the Brooklyn middle hasn’t been inspected stays unclear. ICE didn’t reply to questions from Documented about why the MDC is the one New York facility to not have a compliance inspection carried out or scheduled.
In response to Goldman, who counted a minimum of 204 detainees on the MDC’s two immigration pods on April 7, immigration detainees at New York Metropolis’s solely ICE facility could also be subjected to the identical requirements as felony defendants lodged within the federal jail, although ICE detention facilities are speculated to function beneath a much less restrictive mannequin.
From Miami and Atlanta to Philadelphia and Honolulu, the opposite seven federal prisons used for immigration detention nationwide haven’t undergone ODO inspections both. However inside the yr because the inter-agency settlement was signed, ICE has “reimbursed” over $52 million to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for immigration “detention assist” on the federal prisons cumulatively, DHS confirmed within the letter response to Goldman.
In Brooklyn, except for a handful of DHS officers within the immigration pods and probably better entry to telephones and authorized help, “the circumstances are the identical” as in a federal jail, Goldman mentioned.
“To the extent that the Division of Homeland Safety has completely different requirements for his or her detainees, I don’t imagine they’re being adopted,” he mentioned. “The meals is identical. The medical care is identical.”
One of many detained New Yorkers who the Congressman met on the windy April morning was a Georgian asylum seeker who collapsed after experiencing extreme kidney ache in January 2026, the congressman instructed Documented. The one medical care he acquired at MDC, Goldman mentioned, was an injection that alleviated the ache. His ache persists at a lesser diploma. The person, who was detained by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza regardless of an lively asylum software and no felony historical past, Goldman mentioned, has now additionally developed a extreme abdomen situation that’s resulting in blood in his stool.
Regardless of a number of requests, he hasn’t been capable of see a physician but, the Congressman mentioned.
“Each single factor about this immigration dragnet is un-American,” mentioned Goldman.