Asylum seekers showed up to scheduled appointments only to find their hearings had been canceled. Courtrooms sat mostly empty. Judges complained that translation services were not being coordinated well.
At the federal government building in Lower Manhattan that has emerged as a national flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, operations and court functions had significantly slowed as the government shut down.
Still, federal agents detained at least three individuals who had shown up for a hearing that had been canceled. In other instances, asylum seekers were told that their court dates had been rescheduled or postponed because their judge was not present. Courtrooms appeared to be about a third as busy as usual.
The building, known as 26 Federal Plaza, is home to one of the few public immigration courts in the nation and provides a rare window into immigration proceedings under the Trump administration. On Wednesday, masked federal agents roamed the halls while administrative staff members scrambled to understand the consequences of the shutdown in a 41-story federal building that sits 200 miles from the nation’s capital.
Tensions at the building have been coming to the boil as federal agents work to detain, and eventually deport, migrants showing up to court while a backdrop of reporters, activists and attorneys monitor those same proceedings on a daily basis. On Tuesday, a video journalist was injured and sent to the hospital after federal immigration agents began clearing a perimeter and shoved some journalists.
Court cases in the building typically run well into the afternoon. By noon on Wednesday, most of the proceedings had come to a close or been canceled. One clerk in the building said she was surprised that their offices remained open, and that they were receiving guidance throughout the day about what services to continue or halt.
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