Half of ICE detainees at Brooklyn prison have no criminal record, documents show

Nearly 200 people are now detained at New York City’s only immigration detention center — and more than half have no criminal record, according to a February 2026 Department of Homeland Security letter obtained by Documented.

The facility, the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, where detainees face some of the longest stays in the state, has also never been inspected under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) own compliance standards, and so far no inspection is planned.

The new details came to light this week as Congressman Dan Goldman toured the facility, which is one of eight federal prisons nationwide that began holding detainees last year amid the surge in ICE’s crackdown on immigrants in New York City and beyond.

As part of an agreement between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Prisons, MDC — which has also held Luigi Mangione, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Nicolas Maduro — would additionally hold immigrants detained in raids. 

Within eight months of this contract taking effect in New York, 176 immigrant detainees were held at MDC, which houses 1,363 inmates overall. Fewer than 24 percent of the detained immigrants have criminal convictions, DHS said in a letter dated February 27, 2026. About 19 percent had “pending charges.”

But for over 50 percent of those being held at the facility, DHS provided no details of any charges. The figures came in response to nine questions posed by Goldman, who, in February, after months of rejections, became the first lawmaker to visit the ICE facility at the MDC, which is in his Congressional district. And he returned again on Tuesday.

This time, the prosecutor-turned-lawmaker — who faces former Comptroller Brad Lander in a primary challenge for his seat this fall — met three men detained by ICE at the Brooklyn prison. None had criminal convictions. Two were political asylum applicants from Georgia; another had fled Ukraine seeking refuge in the U.S. 

“We were promised by this President, and his henchmen — including Stephen Miller — that this administration would go after the worst of the worst to deport,” Goldman said outside the gates of the MDC.

“Instead, almost all of them in here have no serious criminal records and many have no arrests at all,” he said.

ICE did not respond to Documented’s request for comment, including a question about what the charges are against at least 100 people detained at the Brooklyn MDC. 

ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) is mandated to inspect facilities that hold 10 or more noncitizen detainees for more than 72 hours. The Brooklyn MDC has an average length of stay of 52 days — higher than six other ICE facilities in New York State, and equal to the detention center in Orange County. 

Yet, according to DHS records, it is the only ICE detention center statewide to have neither gone through a facility inspection yet, nor have one scheduled — something that is highly unusual.

In October 2024, for example, ODO inspectors conducted a three-day inspection at New York’s ICE facility in Batavia, following up on a prior review that had found compliance issues in food services, medical care, custody classification, and incidents of use of force. This time, personnel interviewed 23 detainees. “One detainee reported suspected sexual abuse of another detainee,” noted the 13-page, semi-redacted report reviewed by Documented.

The unit also found three incidents of force in which staff “did not take the time” to seek alternatives before deploying chemical agents, entering rooms, and forcibly removing detainees.

Overall, the inspection in Batavia found non-compliance with 10 of 29 standards.

Two months later, ODO inspectors conducted a similar review at another New York ICE facility in Orange County. Though operated by the county sheriff’s department, the unit interviewed 33 detainees; at least two required better medical care.

Just weeks before Brooklyn MDC’s east building became an ICE detention facility last summer, a federal correctional officer was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing an inmate in the prison on at least two occasions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release about the officer’s indictment just last month. 

Since MDC began holding immigrants, at least 12 ICE facilities have been inspected nationwide.

Why the Brooklyn center hasn’t been inspected remains unclear. ICE did not respond to questions from Documented about why the MDC is the only New York facility to not have a compliance inspection done or scheduled. 

According to Goldman, who counted at least 204 detainees at the MDC’s two immigration pods on April 7, immigration detainees at New York City’s only ICE facility may be subjected to the same standards as criminal defendants lodged in the federal prison, even though ICE detention centers are supposed to operate under a less restrictive model.

From Miami and Atlanta to Philadelphia and Honolulu, the other seven federal prisons used for immigration detention nationwide have not undergone ODO inspections either. But within the year since the inter-agency agreement was signed, ICE has “reimbursed” over $52 million to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for immigration “detention support” at the federal prisons cumulatively, DHS confirmed in the letter response to Goldman.

In Brooklyn, aside from a handful of DHS officers in the immigration pods and potentially greater access to telephones and legal aid, “the conditions are the same” as in a federal prison, Goldman said.

“To the extent that the Department of Homeland Security has different standards for their detainees, I don’t believe they are being followed,” he said. “The food is the same. The medical care is the same.”

One of the detained New Yorkers who the Congressman met on the windy April morning was a Georgian asylum seeker who collapsed after experiencing severe kidney pain in January 2026, the congressman told Documented. The only medical care he received at MDC, Goldman said, was an injection that alleviated the pain. His pain persists at a lesser degree. The man, who was detained by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza despite an active asylum application and no criminal history, Goldman said, has now also developed a severe stomach condition that is leading to blood in his stool. 

Despite multiple requests, he hasn’t been able to see a doctor yet, the Congressman said.

“Every single thing about this immigration dragnet is un-American,” said Goldman.

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