In a statement to The Post, ICE said it was “working to address current processing delays at some ICE offices,” which sources said were worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Security guards also blocked The Post from entering 26 Federal Plaza and inquiring about the slipshod system in person. and were turned away and told to come back on Monday. “There was still a huge line when I went in, I’m not sure how many they let in after me but there was at least 50 people left, it was freezing but you just have to be bundled up really well,” he said, adding that people with children had been waiting for more than 12 hours.Ī family of four - a mother, father, a little boy and a baby girl - came for their appointment at 2:15 p.m. “The line almost wrapped around the building, I got in it when it was on the other street,” and pointed to the corner of Lafayette and Duane Street. and they took people in until about 5 a.m.” he said. “Yes I was able to be attended today, I made the line at 2 a.m. Marlo Lopez, 35 was one of the last few people trickling out of Federal Plaza with a manila envelope at around 1 p.m. One man who was denied entry to the building Wednesday afternoon said it was the seventh time he had tried and failed to attend his processing appointment, underscoring the longstanding scope of the problem as cold weather settled into the region. “We’re closed, we’re closed,” a guard at the door barked in English to several asylum seekers, even as non-migrants with business at the immigration center that carried passports from Ireland and Japan were allowed into the building without question. Migrants who continued to trickle into ICE headquarters, paperwork in hand, in the hopes that officials would make an exception to accommodate them, were bluntly told otherwise. Thank God.” She (Evelyn) is sick now,” the mother said as her miserable daughter coughed beside her.īy midday, the line - which had swollen to about 175 people at 4 a.m., according to NY1 –had dissipated, after officials told migrants whose appointments could not be accommodated Wednesday to try again after the holiday weekend. “A man came and took the two girls into his car so they could sleep because they were too cold. It hurt so bad holding her,” Stephanie said. It was so cold my hands hurt, until I can’t feel. “I say, missed it? It’s not for 2 and a half hours? I think he is crazy so I wait.”Īs they stood outside ICE headquarters for the duration of the day and night, Stephanie’s daughter developed a nasty cough in the chilly temperatures.

He say, ‘You missed it! Come back tonight! You’re going to have to wait on line tonight to get another appointment,” Stephanie said through a translator. yesterday but the people from here ask, ‘What time is your appointment?’ I say, 9am. “In the paper it says the appointment is 9 a.m. appointment - but they were shockingly still turned away. The family told The Post they arrived at 6:30 a.m. In recent days, a makeshift mini-tent city has formed outside 26 Federal Plaza - home to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices - as desperate migrants say their appointments are being ignored and people are instead being served on a first come, first serve basis.Ĭardboard boxes, backpacks and blankets were strewn across the concrete in the early hours of Wednesday, according to video shot by Spectrum News NY1, which first reported on the struggles.īy the time the sun rose, Stephanie and her family – including her 5-year-old daughter Evelyn and 23-year-old cousin - had already been waiting 25 hours, to no avail. The capricious procedures are just the latest sign of how the Big Apple is straining to accommodate the tens of thousands of migrants that have flooded the city in recent months as the Biden administration grapples with its ongoing border crisis. told The Post on Wednesday of the haphazard system. It is no good,” Ecuadorian migrant Stephanie R. Hundreds of migrants have been camping overnight in near-freezing temperatures in a desperate attempt to get a foot inside New York City’s ICE headquarters - as the backlogged immigration system struggles, yet again, to cope with the influx of asylum seekers flowing into the US since President Biden took office.Ī growing number of frustrated asylum seekers, including some with babies and young children in tow, told The Post they braved the 34-degree overnight temperatures in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday and Wednesday only to be told their scheduled processing appointments wouldn’t be honored. Well-dressed Chinese migrants look like tourists on California border, as lawyer says asylum-seekers are ‘at least middle class’ NYC Comptroller Brad Lander keeps grandstanding on migrants, making crisis worse NYC’s migrant ‘crisis’ is one of its own making - we cannot house the world

Bipartisan City Council duo call for more transparency on migrant spending

Ice appointment scheduler