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Immigration court can’t be secret and must be humane

33 0
26.09.2026

The Trump administration has been processing immigration cases at 26 Federal Plaza amid “overcrowded, squalid, and degrading” detention conditions, says Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has ordered it be permanently cleaned up and that people in custody no longer be denied access to medical care or their lawyers.

This is the exact same place where there are new immigration courtrooms on the third floor that, unlike the older courtrooms on the 12th and 14th floors, are off limits to visitors, making for a secret court, a violation of a foundational part of a free society, going back centuries. Courts, all courts, must be open to the public.

As Kaplan wrote in his 127-page opinion, “The Constitution demands humane treatment of everyone in government custody. It requires that they........

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