What Happens Inside

Holding Rooms

People, including children, are locked in "holding rooms" at 250 Delaware for days or even weeks, before being deported or transferred to detention camps. According to ICE policy, "bunks, cots, beds, and other sleeping apparatus are not permitted inside hold rooms".

We pulled data from the Deportation Data Project and looked at records with the facility code 'BUFHOLD' (confirmed to be a holding room at 250 Delaware). In the records available from Feb 2025 – March 2026, we found the following:

A total of 237 people were held, including:

• 33 children under 18
• 18 children under 12
• 11 children under 8
• 91 women, 146 men

The majority of stays exceeded ICE's own time period limits:

• 60% were held for >12-hours, the length of time permitted by ICE's own ERO Holding Facilities policy.
• 33% were held for > 3 days, breaking the 2025 emergency waiver cap DHS granted for itself.
• One person held for 23 days

Overcrowded occurred repeatedly:

• 44 people at once, all held for three days
• 29 people at once, held 2-3 days
• 19 people at once, some held nearly 5 days
• 16 people at once, one held for 11 days

Read more about holding rooms nationwide:

• Revealed: ICE violates its own policy by holding people in secretive rooms for days or weeks - The Guardian
• ICE Locks Thousands, Including Kids, in 170 ‘Hold Rooms’ Nationwide. Here’s Where They Are. - Colorado Time Reporter
• ICE officials warned of dangerous crowding. See how they kept packing people in. - The Washington Post
• Raskin Conducts Unannounced Oversight Visit to Baltimore ICE Facility, Exposes Overcrowded, Inhumane Conditions
• ICE quietly operating ‘holdroom’ facility in Alamosa - Alamosa Citizen

Arrests-by Appointment

ICE orders people to appear for “routine check-ins” at 250 Delaware, then arrests them when they show up.

Dolores Bustamante Romero's story

In April 2026, Dolores, a 54-year-old farmworker advocate and asylum seeker who came to the US in 2003, was arrested at a check-in appointment at 250 Delaware.

“I will go to my check-in because I have tried to do things the right way. I have been in court for more than 10 years, trying to navigate my case the right way. I pay my taxes, and I contribute to this community's economy. I have committed no crimes.”

She was transferred the same day. First to Ohio, then Louisiana, before a court order mandated her return to New York. After more than a month in detention a federal judge ordered her release, ruling that ICE had violated her due process rights.

Sources: ICE now targeting Afghans, rule followers, ICE seizes advocate for migrant farmworkers