The New York Civil Liberties Union and Bronx Defenders filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the New York City ICE field office to challenge their practice of jailing virtually all the thousands of people they have arrested over the last three years.
The NYCLU uncovered the practice as the result of a FOIA request it submitted to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After being forced to sue ICE in federal court for denying the request, the NYCLU obtained data revealing that starting in 2017, ICE’s New York field office has all but eliminated bond or release for people awaiting immigration hearings.