How Rep. Dan Goldman’s Office Became a ‘Triage Center’ for ICE Detainees

It began in the spring, when Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) went to work and “saw a dozen masked ICE agents in the lobby” of his office building. 

“What’s going on here?” he recalled asking, incredulously. “What is happening?”

After the initial shock, the congressman and his staff saw that the masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had become a regular presence at the immigration courts located in the same federal building as his Manhattan district office. Along with two other similar courts in the city, his building had become the site of an unprecedented wave of aggressive detentions that began during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration. The detentions largely targeted undocumented immigrants who were in the midst of legal proceedings to obtain residency and citizenship. 

Goldman, who was first elected in 2022, has long been a staunch opponent of Trump and his immigration policies in Congress. However, when Trump’s mass deportation agenda literally showed up outside his office, his involvement escalated, with his office becoming the headquarters for a legal operation that has secured the release of nine ICE detainees. 

“We have our Washington D.C. angle to it, with the legislation and the letters and public messaging to make Americans aware of what is actually going on,” Goldman said during an extensive interview with TPM earlier this month. “But we also are sitting across the street from families who are being torn apart, and if there’s a way for us to help them, I’ve told my staff, do anything possible.”

Goldman and his staffers began making regular visits to Manhattan’s immigration courts. While there, they got to know the network of court watchers and accompaniers who have been supporting migrants and trying to help them keep their cases alive. Eventually, Goldman and his staff began letting Peter Melck Kuttel, a volunteer who is a ubiquitous presence in the court buildings, and other key members of the activist legal network use their district office as a headquarters following violent detentions in the halls. As Goldman put it, the relationship “started organically.”

“First, it was just a refuge for people to be able to, you know, deal with the emotions of it and have some water, and some food, or whatever. Now, we’ve really built it into a whole triage center,” he said.

According to Goldman, the first incident where someone came to his office after an encounter with ICE in court came in September, when agents grabbed a woman named Monica Moreta-Galarza by her hair and shoved her down the hall as she cried and protested after her husband was taken. 

Video showed an ICE officer violently slamming Moreta-Galarza to the ground as her young daughter stood close by. The family had an ongoing asylum case. After Moreta-Galarza was rushed to Goldman’s office, the congressman and his staff helped direct her to a hospital and ensure that she would not be arrested upon arrival. Goldman also referred the ICE agent who pushed her for criminal prosecution. ICE subsequently indicated the officer had been “relieved of his current duties,” but it provided no specific information about what this meant. Days later, CBS News reported that “two U.S. officials familiar with the matter” confirmed the man was back at work.  

After that incident, Goldman’s office became a key headquarters for an operation advocates call the “habeas machine, dedicated to quickly filing legal petitions that force ICE to justify detentions in court. 

In many cases, following detentions in Manhattan, ICE has rapidly flown immigrants to other areas of the country where judges are less lenient and they are far from family or attorneys. Because of this, time is of the essence in the moments after someone is taken in court. 

“We’ve opened it up to all of the court watchers and advocates to come in here and work because the urgency of the habeas is so significant,” Goldman said. “They’re whisking people out of state.” 

In addition to opening his office, Goldman has helped connect the advocates with attorneys willing to work on these habeas corpus cases. According to Goldman’s staff, the cases of 27 different detainees have come through his office. Nine of these detainees have been released. The other cases are ongoing. 

Goldman describes ICE’s behavior as illegal. As proof, he cites the cases where judges have ordered releases and the fact people are being detained in the midst of “active asylum cases.”

“It’s as if they believe that they create their own law,” Goldman said of ICE. 

ICE is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and Goldman is a member of the House committee that has oversight of the agency. He and his staff have also used that position to help detainees’ families secure their belongings. In at least one instance where ICE was seemingly delaying the release of a detainee after it was ordered to do so by a judge, Goldman’s staff interceded to deliver what one advocate involved in the case described as “a kick in the ass.” The young man was reunited with his parents soon afterwards. 

Along with providing advocates with resources and support for casework, Goldman and his staff have helped direct immigrants to shelter and health care in the immediate aftermath of a family member’s detention. 

“We’re doing a full kind of wraparound care where we’re trying to help people if they need shelter,” Goldman said. “A lot of times the breadwinner has been taken now, and how are they actually going to actually pay for daily expenses?”

Advocates working at Manhattan’s immigration courts have said private security contractors and ICE agents have prevented them from distributing informational materials including literature informing them of their rights. According to court watchers who spoke to TPM, officers claimed anything that was not federally authorized could not be distributed. When Goldman and his team heard this, they printed “Know Your Rights” information on his official congressional letterhead. The advocates were then allowed to disseminate the flyers.

“We don’t control the immigration system. We don’t control the courtrooms, but we have some power and we are going to aggressively use it in every way we can as a force for good,” Goldman said. “And so, little things like that where we can use our authority to counteract against the lawlessness from ICE, we’ve done it.”

Now, Goldman is trying to recruit lawyers to join the “habeas machine.” He’s also working with other officials and advocacy organizations to try and establish similar operations. For Goldman, the situation at the immigration courts is personal. 

“To see this administration demonize immigrants just for being different, or other, or not born in America, or frankly, not white, is very difficult for me just to emotionally handle.

Rep. Dan Goldman

“There’s a lot that has happened this year that makes me incredibly angry and upset for our democracy. Nothing has hit me emotionally like this immigration dragnet,” Goldman explained. “My grandmother escaped antisemitism in Russia and came through Ellis Island. And, at that time … there was no need for asylum. People were welcomed here, and they came here to seek refuge, and to seek opportunity.”

“That’s what this country is all about,” he continued. “And now to see this administration demonize immigrants just for being different, or other, or not born in America, or frankly, not white, is very difficult for me just to emotionally handle. There’s a lot of crazy stuff, but nothing has kept me up at night like this.” 

Goldman spoke with TPM inside his office overlooking 26 Federal Plaza, a drab grey tower that has been the epicenter of the detention wave. The walls were decorated with two large, framed pictures; a courtroom sketch showing Goldman working what he called a “Russian mafia” case during his earlier career as an assistant U.S. attorney and a photo of the Statue of Liberty. Goldman pointed to the picture behind his desk and argued Trump is abandoning the ideals exemplified by that iconic monument. 

“What this administration is doing is flipping that on its head and — whether it be from sort of a Christian nationalist or white supremacist background — they are demonizing anyone who is other,” Goldman said. “That is how this country loses its values. It loses its heart, it loses its soul, and ultimately, it will lose its influence and importance around the world.”

Those concerns have led work with detainees to become the top priority for Goldman’s office. He said he has reoriented most of his staff capacity to focus on the issue. 

“This is foundational to our values, to our system of government, and to the bedrock of democracy, which is the rule of law,” Goldman said. “Every single concern that one might have about this administration is all included in this immigration dragnet.”

Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) was mad. 

It was Dec. 8 and she was inside 26 Federal Plaza with Goldman and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). The congressional delegation was on the building’s fifth floor, which advocates say has played host to the majority of detentions in recent weeks, as immigrants are required to show up there for routine checkins. It’s a hard claim to verify; advocates, attorneys, and credentialed reporters have been barred from observing the activity on the floor. Now, the members of Congress were being shut out too. Velázquez fumed after she was turned away following a tense standoff that lasted several minutes. 

“I stayed there listening to some bullshit,” Velázquez said with a wave of her hand as she stormed off to the elevators.

Guards from Paragon Systems, a private contractor that provides security at federal buildings around the country, had initially stopped the lawmakers at the elevators and prevented them from proceeding onto the floor. After they called in a DHS commander, the congressional delegation was taken down the hall, out of sight of their staff and of TPM. They returned after a short — and apparently unsatisfactory — exchange.

“This is like the Wild West. These people here, ICE, they have no respect for the law.”

Rep. Nydia Velázquez

As she stood at the elevators, Velázquez said an ICE supervisor briefly spoke with them and insisted the agency’s “protocol” prevented them from being allowed onto the floor. The veteran congresswoman, who said she had reviewed the facility on many other occasions before the past year, decried the situation as a violation of the law.

“We have been here so many times. This is like the Wild West,” Velázquez said, pointing at the surrounding guards and officers. “These people here, ICE, they have no respect for the law. They are in violation of federal law where we as members of Congress are entitled to come in without any type of notification. That’s what oversight means.”

Goldman and Espaillat followed after her. As they boarded the escalators, Espaillat pointed back down the hall at a smiling Paragon guard.  

“He’s itching for a confrontation,” Espaillat said. “He tried to jump in front of Goldman.”

The trio proceeded on to other floors where they observed court hearings and heard concerns from advocates about the behavior of the ICE agents in the halls. They were accompanied by Father Fabian Arias, one of the many religious leaders around the city who have been providing legal support for migrants, and Kuttel, the volunteer court watcher, who works with Arias and is a key part of Goldman’s “habeas machine.”

After leaving the building, the members of Congress held a press conference outside. Goldman noted they were among a dozen House members who had filed a lawsuit against changes in ICE policy made by the Trump administration earlier this past year that required members of Congress to provide notice before visiting to inspect the agency’s facilities. He described this as a clear violation of statute 527, which was included in appropriations legislation that has been passed annually since 2020. The statute specifies that members of Congress cannot be prevented from “conducting oversight” at “any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.” It also states that members of Congress do not need to “provide prior notice” for these visits. At the press conference, Goldman argued the ICE was clearly violating the statute inside 26 Federal Plaza. 

“This is not American, this is not a democracy, and this is not acceptable,” he said.

Goldman further said one of the most “unsettling” things he has heard in conversations with advocates is that immigrants are being driven “underground” and avoiding the courts out of fears of the masked agents in the halls. To that end, he also announced that he and his colleagues were introducing a new bill that would prohibit ICE from arresting anyone who appeared in court for an ongoing legal proceeding or routine check-in without a judicial warrant.

“You cannot sandbag people who are trying to do this the right way,” he said.

Espaillat took the microphone next and railed against what he called the “Trump dictatorship.” He pointed to the fact they were turned away from the fifth floor as proof there was an “abrasive disregard of the law” at work in the courts. 

“The characteristics of a dictatorship are for masked agents to roam the streets and slam people to the ground as they did to a woman here in front of her young daughter,” Espaillat said. “To disregard the law as they did today … ICE told us that they had protocols. Protocol is not above the law.”

A spokesperson for DHS did not respond to requests for comment from TPM about the claims the actions of ICE in the New York City courts are against the law.

On Dec. 19, Goldman and Espaillat were back at 26 Federal Plaza. The day before, in response to their lawsuit, a U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb ruled that ICE’s policy requiring members of Congress to give seven days notice before visiting the agency’s facilities exceeded its “statutory authority.” Cobb ordered the restriction lifted while the case continues to play out. Goldman and Espaillat responded by returning to the court to visit some of the areas from which they had been barred. This included the tenth floor which, based on extensive testimony from those who have been inside, is home to holding cells where detainees have endured harsh conditions including poor hygiene, cramped cells, and a lack of beds. In statements to TPM and other news organizations, DHS has denied the existence of a “detention center” in the building and insisted people are just held there for “processing.” 

In a press conference following their visit, Goldman said that, unlike in prior videos he had seen, the “holding rooms” on the tenth floor were “spic and span.” 

“I suspect that they cleaned up,” Goldman said. “There were a number of cleaning people there.”

While Goldman noted this was a marked improvement from the previous, “absolutely inhumane conditions,” he pointed out these accommodations are still only suited for brief processing even though they have allegedly held detainees for days. Goldman also vowed he will keep watching.

“Let’s be clear, they were aware that, as of yesterday, that we were coming,” said Goldman. “But part of doing the oversight is so that they know they’re going to be under the microscope, and so that they do clean the place, so that they do keep it in much better condition. And we will keep coming back and we will come back without any notice.”

Goldman’s efforts to address ICE have ended up in court challenges in large part because Republicans currently have a majority in the House. In his conversation with TPM, Goldman said much of the GOP delegation is “in line with the president, and especially on this issue.” 

“The frustration at my Republican colleagues is just through the roof because they know better,” Goldman said. “The fact that they’re just sitting there quietly, letting all of this happen, doing no oversight is such a dereliction of duty.”

He attributed this tolerance for ICE abuses among Republicans to the fact they see Trump’s mass deportation agenda as “a political winner for them.” 

“They don’t defend it privately. … They think they can gaslight people into believing that they are taking — they are arresting and removing — the worst of the worst when, in reality, 95% have no felony convictions. That is not the worst of the worst,” Goldman said, adding, “They would rather be talking about this than taking away health care, and taking away food stamps, than using the Department of Justice as a revenge and retribution tool for the president, cutting taxes for the billionaires.”

“Come January, 2027, you can bet that there will be — we will open a number of investigations that very likely will lead to impeachment.”

Rep. Dan Goldman

Goldman hopes to cut through some of that political dynamic. 

“Unlike pocketbook issues, where people can’t be fooled because they see their monthly bills, he can still try to lie to the American people about what he’s doing,” Goldman said of Trump’s immigration policy. “And that’s part of what we are trying to do, is expose the lies.”

For Goldman, working on this issue and being able to free detainees has been “bittersweet” because he recognizes his limitations as a member of the House minority. The congressman said he wishes he had more power to address “the terror and the fear that this administration is intentionally inflicting on so many.”

“Being an elected official in Congress, I feel very much like I should be able to do more and it has been very frustrating not to be able to make a more sweeping change,” Goldman said.

But sweeping change is still on Goldman’s mind. 

In 2019, based on his experience as a prosecutor, Goldman served as lead counsel on Trump’s first impeachment. That effort to oust the president was ultimately unsuccessful due to the Republican majority in the Senate. With the GOP’s current numbers in both chambers of Congress, Goldman says there is “zero chance” of another impeachment. He expects that to change after next year’s midterm elections. 

“When we take over the House — and I am confident we will in November — come January, 2027, you can bet that there will be — we will open a number of investigations that very likely will lead to impeachment,” Goldman said.

And Goldman had one word to say when TPM asked if he wanted to be involved in that process: 

“Absolutely.”