Federal agents arrested numerous immigrants at required check-ins with the agency on Tuesday, after a private contractor with the agency summoned an untold number of people to show up for appointments this week.
THE CITY witnessed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shuttling at least 16 people out of a nondescript office building where people in deportation proceedings are required to report to a private contractor working with the agency.
At about 15 minutes past the hour every hour all afternoon, teams of agents, many of them masked, left the building escorting four people, each in handcuffs, into parked SUVs that then quickly zipped across the street to the garage of 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE has its local field office.
In all, THE CITY saw 16 detained people over the course of the afternoon. Agents declined to identify themselves when asked during the course of the afternoon, though one person directed THE CITY to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment. The agency didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Federal agents arrest people showing up for an immigration check-in on Elk Street in Lower Manhattan, June 3, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
The people loaded into the vehicles, each with their hands behind their backs and escorted by masked officers in plainclothes, were escorted from a nondescript basement office run by the company BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison behemoth GEO Group. Immigrants in various stages of deportation proceedings are required to report there for what are called Intensive Supervision Appearance Program appointments every few weeks or months, typically with several weeks advance warning.
But that changed on Monday. Several people entering and exiting the office who spoke with THE CITY described getting an urgent message that evening on the company’s phone app telling them to appear either Tuesday or Wednesday this week.
“Your ICE official has asked that you present yourself in the office to review your case this week,” according to the message reviewed by THE CITY. “Please arrive at the office Tuesday the 3rd, or Wednesday the 4th of June. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.”
Some people were allowed to leave unapprehended with return dates in the coming weeks. Three women who also received the message and came to the office on Tuesday told THE CITY they were instructed to return on Wednesday — but this time to bring their children with them.
“That is unlike anything that I have heard,” said Yasmine Farhang, an attorney with the Immigrant Defense Project, who had previously accompanied clients into the subterranean offices of Geo Group’s BI Inc. on Elk Street, before she had heard that lawyers were no longer allowed into the building.
A reporter entering the office was instructed to leave by a person who didn’t identify themselves but provided a press contact at the GEO Group. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
While there have been sporadic reports of arrests at deportation check-ins since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Tuesday appeared to be the first time that ICE agents have used the check-ins to systematically round people up in New York City.
Federal agents arrest people showing up for an immigration check in on Elk Street in Lower Manhattan, June 3, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
The Elk Street arrests Tuesday came as ICE agents continued to detain people inside immigration court houses. THE CITY spoke with several dazed and damp-eyed family members throughout the course of the afternoon, trying to figure out news of their loved ones who had appeared in court only to be whisked out of view.
One man told THE CITY both he and his brother entered 26 Federal Plaza with court dates for their deportation cases before two different immigration judges. His brother was detained, while he was allowed to leave.
“I guess I have to go home by myself,” he said in Spanish, sitting on a rock in Foley Square collecting his thoughts. He and his brother had both been trying to fight their asylum cases and decided to appear in court despite fearing they might be detained.
He’d been given a date to return next month, he said, adding: “I’m not coming back.”
Farhang said the check-in arrests mark an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to target and deport immigrants in centralized locations.
“ICE is expanding their tactic of using the courthouse trap to target really vulnerable people,” Farhang said. “This is a site where people are one, required to go and two, by nature of their policy not going to have counsel with them, which makes it especially vulnerable.”
Additional reporting by Alex Krales.
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