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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration Review have blocked court observers, reporters and attorneys from several new immigration courtrooms inside 26 Federal Plaza this month.
EOIR, a branch of the Justice Department, started sending immigrants attending routine deportation hearings without lawyers to these private courtrooms on Sept. 14. Dubbed the “black site docket” by some immigration and transparency advocates, the courtrooms are on the third floor, which is overseen by DHS.
Traditional immigration courtrooms on two floors inside 26 Federal Plaza are overseen by EOIR. By law and a recent court order, these courtrooms are supposed to be open to the public, except for certain privacy exceptions or capacity issues.
But when The City Reporter tried to enter one of the new immigration courtrooms on the third floor Monday, security guards barred the reporter from entering. A DHS police inspector later threatened The City Reporter with arrest for trying to wait in an elevator bank outside the new courtrooms.
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Stephen Kelly, an attorney representing the Access Project, a group of New Yorkers who sued to ensure public access to immigration courts, said they were concerned that the new private courtrooms seemed like an attempt to circumvent a federal court order from July requiring immigration courtrooms inside 26 Federal Plaza and 290 Broadway be publicly accessible, except in certain circumstances. He said the group was considering its legal options in light of the closed-doors proceedings.
“They can’t shuffle bureaucracy and call it compliance,” Kelly said. “This case, and the order we’ve won, isn’t about specific floors or rooms. It’s about conduct.”
Kathryn Mattingly, a spokesperson for EOIR, said in a statement that the agency is making “scheduling adjustments, to include opening new hearing locations as needed, to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner.” She pointed to agency guidance and said that while immigration courtrooms are generally open, they could be closed off at any time. She did not provide any further justification for the new private courtrooms.
Thus far, just a handful of judges who only appear virtually and don’t come into 26 Federal Plaza had their cases scheduled for rooms on the third floor, referred to as “NY1” in immigration court records. On Monday, just one courtroom was sending immigrants to the third floor, while many other judges were seeing immigrants in person on the 12th and 14th floors of the building over the morning.
## **An ‘Extremely Concerning’ Development**
Reports of these “hidden tribunals” for immigrants facing deportation have emerged in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, NPR recently reported. The isolated courtrooms have left advocates searching for answers and fearing the worst.
Since the private courtrooms opened in New York City last week, there has been no indication that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested anyone sent to one of them, advocates said.
While the room where immigrants were going for their hearings was closed, The City Reporter was able to observe the proceedings virtually from a courtroom on the 12th floor that was empty except for a few reporters, observers and a clerk working for Immigration Judge Brett Geiger. Geiger appeared via teleconference and was recently appointed by President Donald Trump. A screen there showed a livestream of the third floor, where immigrants without lawyers had been instructed to report.
The video feed showed a couple with a child around 8 years old, a woman in her 30s and a man in his late 20s sitting in a white room with peeling paint and eight chairs.
Their cases proceeded otherwise as normal, with Geiger giving each person several additional weeks to try to find a lawyer and dates by which to return to court.
The judge instructed several people to return to the 12th floor to collect paperwork from the clerk, raising questions about why they were sent to a room on an entirely separate floor in the first place.
“It’s not logistically efficient. It’s not legally efficient. So that would lead me to make the assumption that there’s ulterior motives,” said Benjamin Remy, an immigration attorney from the nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group. Remy said he tried to accompany an immigrant without a lawyer to the third floor but was blocked from entering by security guards.
“I was told a blanket ‘no,’ that there’s no one allowed back except the respondent,” Remy said. “That’s obviously extremely concerning in terms of access to counsel and access to any semblance of transparency and accountability when an attorney can’t even be in the room.”
Fabian Arias, a pastor at St. Peter’s Church in Midtown and a frequent court observer who was one of the plaintiffs in the Access Project lawsuit challenging lack of public access to immigration courts, said he was also blocked from accompanying another couple whose asylum applications the church was helping complete.
“My intention was to give the rosary, say the words ‘God bless you. We pray for you,’” he said.
The guards told him to leave the floor, Arias added. “That’s crazy because this is a court, not a check-in with ICE.”
## **‘Bedraggled and Chaotic’**
The City Reporter spent several hours Monday ping-ponging between different floors at 26 Federal Plaza trying to ascertain more information about the new third floor courtrooms.
One EOIR employee at an information desk said the rooms were overseen by DHS. A department attorney working in one of the courtrooms said she had no idea what the new floor of courtrooms was for.
Another EOIR employee said he’d received an email from his supervisor simply describing the courtrooms as a “new initiative for pro se litigants.” “I’ve never even been down there,” said the employee, who was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Court observers said the “black site docket” adds yet another layer of confusion to a tumultuous immigration court system that’s been pummeled with rounds of layoffs of immigration judges, who are part of the executive branch, and near-constant policy changes during Trump’s second term. The Justice Department maintains its goal is to cut through the backlog of more than a half-million cases that soared during President Joe Biden’s term.
Removal orders issued after immigrants missed their court appearances skyrocketed as the Trump administration rolled out “mega master” hearings over the summer. In many cases, people’s years-away court dates were rescheduled for appearances just a week or two away, leading to a huge increase in people missing their hearings.
Julie Kantor, a frequent volunteer court observer, said in the days since the private courtrooms at 26 Federal Plaza opened, she has found people wandering through the hallways unsure of where to go.
“Because of mass confusion, they are missing their hearings,” she said. “It’s just so bedraggled and chaotic.”
## **Restricted Access to Part of Immigration Court**
On a second visit to the third floor Monday, The City Reporter tried to stay in the elevator bank to observe people entering and exiting the new courtrooms. Private security guards told the reporter to leave and called a supervisor.
DHS Police Inspector Valencia arrived and pointed to a large “no-loitering” sign and said the reporter could be arrested under a provision of federal code that bars obstructing public areas inside government buildings.
“I have to be honest with you, I’m letting you know if you come down here one more time, you detain her and we take her upstairs, we don’t want to do this, but don’t put us in that spot,” said Valencia, who declined to provide his first name.
A DHS spokesperson didn’t return a request for comment on the incident.
On a subsequent visit to the third floor Tuesday morning, court observers and The City Reporter were allowed to stay in the elevator bank. The no-loitering sign had been moved farther into the hallway, so it didn’t obstruct the area.
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