New York City immigrant rights advocates are calling for the closure of what appears to be an unofficial detention center for noncitizens hosted in a federal building in Lower Manhattan following a federal court injunction Tuesday that ordered U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement to "meet baseline conditions" inside the facility.

Murad Awawdeh, the president of New York Immigration Coalition, said that "no person should be subject to the inhumane conditions" while being detained on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, a federal building that houses field offices for ICE, the FBI and an immigration court.

"ICE has repeatedly lied and skirted accountability about what is happening on the 10th floor, as people are being detained for days or weeks at a time without basic care," Awawdeh said in a statement to the press Tuesday evening.

Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order that prohibits ICE from detaining noncitizens in a holding room that has less than 50 square feet of space for each detained person.

Under the order, detainees must be given access to a free phone call to an attorney during the first 24 hours of being held, and once every 12 hours afterward.

The order, which came in response to a class action filed by a group of noncitizens detained in the federal building, also requires ICE to provide bedding for people detained overnight, as well as basic personal hygiene items such as soap, towels, toilet paper, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

In a memorandum filed by a group of civil rights groups that includes the American Civil Liberties Union and Make The Road New York, plaintiff Sergio Alberto Barco Mercado said that after being detained on Aug. 8 following a hearing in immigration court, he was prevented from seeing his lawyer while held inside a holding room on the 10th floor.

The suit describes the conditions in the facility as "horrific and degrading."

Mercado said nearly 100 people are detained into single hold rooms at a time, causing "extreme overcrowding." Detainees must use open toilets that are visible to the room, ensuring no privacy for those who need to use them. Food is insufficient, according to detainees who said they have lost weight while being held there. Medication is not offered to detainees who need it, according to the suit.

"Individuals have no opportunity to bathe, and they must wear the same clothes, including underwear, for the duration of their detention even if they remain at 26 Fed for a week, two weeks, or longer," the memorandum says.

In July, videos taken by detainees at 26 Federal Plaza showed an overcrowded room with people scattered on the floor and laying down near toilets. ICE has repeatedly claimed that the 10th Floor is classified as a holding center and is therefore not subject to congressional inspections like detention centers.

"This video confirms what we've feared all along: ICE has been lying and locking us out to hide what's happening inside," U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez of New York said in a statement following the publication of the videos. "There is no more excuse. ICE must grant members of Congress immediate access to the 10th floor and shut this facility down."

In a statement on Tuesday evening, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is a frequent visitor of 26 Federal Plaza and was arrested there in June while complaining to ICE officers about arrests of noncitizens in immigration court, called Judge Kaplan's order "a much-needed rebuke of Trump's cruel immigration policies."

"The Trump administration turned the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza into a makeshift detention center without adequate beds, restrooms, or supplies," Lander said. "Sadly, our immigration courts have become a place where the rule of law is being eroded; I'm grateful that today our federal courts are upholding it."

The case is Sergio Alberto Barco Mercado et al. v. Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., case number 1:25-cv-0658, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

--Editing by Marygrace Anderson.