A group of doctors rallied in front of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Monday afternoon, demanding that ICE provide detained immigrants the medical care they need.
Photo by Dean Moses
A group of doctors rallied in front of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Monday afternoon, demanding that ICE provide detained immigrants the medical care they need.
On July 15, amNewYork observed an ICE detainee appear to suffer a medical episode as he was whisked from his legally mandated court hearing by masked federal agents and into a nearby stairwell. The sound of screaming and coughing echoed down the hallway, and a glimpse of his handcuffed body could be seen through an open door.
According to those in the medical field, this is not uncommon. Doctor Sonni Mun — a physician, immigrant, and American citizen who went through the naturalization process at 26 Federal Plaza — said she has seen medical emergencies like these firsthand.
“I recently started volunteering inside the immigration court. And the first day that I showed up to volunteer as an immigration court observer escort, there was a medical emergency in the lobby, and it was appalling how it was handled,” Mun said.
Mun recalled that she attempted to offer her expertise after a man had fainted, but alleges DHS staff met her with hostility and demanded that she show a medical license while also refusing to call for EMS.
“I have stepped up on airplanes, at festivals, at road races, at marathons. I’ve never been asked to prove that I’m a doctor,” Mun said. “This is how they treat somebody who’s having a medical emergency in the lobby, this is how they treat other colleagues. How do you think they are treating the immigrants that they have up there?”
Anti-immigrant counterprotesters show up
During the rally that was jointly held by the New York Doctors Coalition, the New York Immigration Coalition, and others, several fringe, anti-immigrant protesters attempted to disrupt the rally by hurling obscenities and attempting to intimidate attendees. Several medical professionals attempted to block the disrupters.
In one instance, Mun stood in defiance, looking up at the hulking figure and refusing to budge.
Meanwhile, another doctor, Steve Auerbach, said that he used to work in 26 Federal Plaza, but since ICE began detaining families attending their legally mandated court hearings, the facility has a very different meaning now.
“It’s all the more painful that now 26 Federal Plaza is being illegally, illegitimately used as one of the many sites around the country to illegally warehouse and harm refugees and immigrants,” Auerbach said. “DHS refused to speak to us, just as they cover themselves up in their masks and they cover up the name tags they know they are doing wrong.”
City Comptroller Brad Lander also attended the rally, thanking the physicians for trying to shed light on the most basic of human needs: health care.
“I think we’re really getting down to the most elemental level of it all, which is that human beings are being kept in this building, which is not designed as a facility for anyone to sleep in, and they are being denied even basic medical care. And so I mostly came today just to say thank you to the doctors and health professionals here who took an oath to observe and to take care of people’s health,” Lander said.
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