Officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency have admonished their workers not to interfere with arrests by immigration officers in a downtown Manhattan building where the agency has offices, underscoring tension among federal employees as President Trump escalates his crackdown on immigrants.
A spokeswoman for the E.P.A. said an email was sent on Monday to regional employees after agency workers had asked questions about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers inside the federal building at 290 Broadway, which also houses a Department of Justice immigration court.
Immigration agents in recent days have been arresting migrants after their court hearings if they have been ordered deported or if their cases have been dismissed, a tactic that represents an aggressive new approach by ICE as part of Mr. Trump’s effort to boost deportation numbers.
A union representative for workers at the E.P.A. said that some employees had been pushed out of the way in elevators and had felt threatened coming to and from work since the ICE agents started appearing in the lobby of the building.
In the memo sent on Monday by an E.P.A. security official, employees were urged to identify themselves as federal staff by wearing their work badges to “significantly reduce the likelihood of employees being engaged by law enforcement.” The memo also ordered E.P.A. employees not to hinder ICE operations.
“The advice in this note reflects our priority, which is the safety of our employees,” said Mary Mears, an E.P.A. spokeswoman.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and ICE did not respond to questions about the email. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Suzy Englot, president of Local 3911 of the American Federation of Government Employees and an E.P.A. staff member who works in the building on Broadway, said that many workers have been unsettled by the detention activities they have witnessed in the past two weeks. Ms. Englot said that some workers have been concerned about the welfare of the migrants, while others have been worried that agents might confuse them for the people they are there to arrest.
“Several members of our union have witnessed people being detained as they exit elevators, put in handcuffs, taken away somewhere,” Ms. Englot said. “Generally, people have started to feel unsafe.”
Ben Mabie, a staff organizer for Local 98 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers who works across the street from 290 Broadway, said he had overheard security guards teasing workers about carrying their passports when they step away from their offices to use the restroom. Mr. Mabie said that employees of color had expressed concern about being targeted.
“A lot of these arrests, and sometimes tussles over arrests, are taking place right in front of where child care for the federal building takes place,” Mr. Mabie said. “These are armed agents that are literally, you know, sometimes 15, 20 feet away.”
Historically, immigration officials have avoided courthouse arrests because of concerns that they might deter people from complying with orders to appear in court. The new operations have taken place across the country during the past two weeks.
E.P.A. workers have faced a drumbeat of challenges under Mr. Trump’s presidency, and the added ICE presence has felt like another blow, Ms. Englot said.
The agency has been one of Mr. Trump’s targets in his war on the federal bureaucracy. Mr. Trump and his administration have argued that spending cuts are necessary to reduce government bloat and excessive public spending. While experts and workers acknowledge that reforms are needed in the federal work force, some believe that the administration’s tactics, including offering blanket deferred resignations to two million workers, have lacked thought, empathy or strategy.
“I think for a lot of people, this is just adding another really awful thing on top of what has already been a really tough few months,” Ms. Englot said.
She added: “And then, it’s also the worry that we all have as people who are public servants. You know, we care about other people, and we worry about what’s happening.”
Jefferson Siegel contributed reporting.
Ana Ley is a Times reporter covering immigration in New York City.
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