How Rep. Dan Goldman’s Office Became a ‘Triage Center’ for ICE Detainees

It began in the spring, when Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) went to work and “saw a dozen masked ICE agents in the lobby” of his office building. “What’s going on here?” he recalled asking, incredulously. “What is happening?” After the initial shock, the congressman and his staff saw that the masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had become a regular presence at the immigration courts located in the same federal building as his Manhattan district office. Along with two other similar courts in the city, his building had become the site of an unprecedented wave of aggressive detentions that began during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration. The detentions largely targeted undocumented immigrants who were in the midst of legal proceedings to obtain residency and citizenship. Goldman, who was first elected in 2022, has long been a staunch opponent of Trump and his immigration policies in Congress. However, when Trump’s mass deportation agenda literally showed up outside his office, his involvement escalated, with his office becoming the headquarters for a legal operation that has secured the release of nine ICE detainees. “We have our Washington D.C. angle to it, with the legislation and the letters and public messaging to make Americans aware of what is actually going on,” Goldman said during an extensive interview with TPM earlier this month. “But we also are sitting across the street from families who are being torn apart, and if there’s a way for us to help them, I’ve told my staff, do anything possible.” Goldman and his staffers began making regular visits to Manhattan’s immigration courts. While there, they got to know the network of court watchers and accompaniers who have been supporting migrants and trying to help them keep their cases alive . Eventually, Goldman and his staff began letting Peter Melck Kuttel, a volunteer who is a ubiquitous presence in the court buildings , and other key members of the activist legal network use their district office as a headquarters following violent detentions in the halls. As Goldman put it, the relationship “started organically.” “First, it was just a refuge for people to be able to, you know, deal with the emotions of it and have some water, and some food, or whatever. Now, we’ve really built it into a whole triage center,” he said. According to Goldman, the first incident where someone came to his office after an encounter with ICE in court came in September, when agents grabbed a woman named Monica Moreta-Galarza by her hair and shoved her down the hall as she cried and protested after her husband was taken. Video showed an ICE officer violently slamming Moreta-Galarza to the ground as her young daughter stood close by. The family had an ongoing asylum case. After Moreta-Galarza was rushed to Goldman’s office, the congressman and his staff helped direct her to a hospital and ensure that she would not be arrested upon arrival. Goldman also referred the ICE agent who pushed her for criminal...

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