Elected officials arrested during protest of NYC immigration holding facility

The government building, Federal Plaza, has become a hotbed of arrests and detentio amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

NEW YORK — More than a dozen elected officials were arrested Thursday while protesting conditions at a New York City immigration holding facility where a federal judge this week extended a court order requiring the government to shape up its treatment of detainees.

The officials — including the city's fiscal watchdog and state lawmakers — were among 77 people detained during protests at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. The government building, home to immigration court, the FBI's New York field office and other federal offices, has become a hotbed of arrests and detention amid President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Eleven officials were arrested inside the building while attempting to inspect holding rooms on the 10th floor that are the subject of ongoing litigation alleging squalid conditions and overcrowding, according to a coalition of politicians, advocates and faith leaders involved in the protest. They were given summonses and released. The building was later locked down because of a telephoned bomb threat, authorities said.

The officials had gone to the holding facility to see if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was complying with a preliminary injunction issued Wednesday that requires the agency to limit capacity, ensure cleanliness and provide sleeping mats, among other remedies, the coalition said.

Federal agents detain elected officials after they demanded access the detainment facility at an immigration court in New York on Thursday.Yuki Iwamura / APBut federal agents barred them from entering the holding rooms and arrested them as news reporters and photographers documented the scene. The arrests happened as the officials were conducting a sit-in in the hallway, encircled around a sign showing a slash through the word "ICE." Agents bound their hands with plastic ties, lined them up against a wall and paraded them down a hall.