Gagne Diagne was standing near his car outside his Bronx home around 7 a.m. on Aug. 14 when masked men approached him. He says he had no idea they were federal agents. “I saw them with masks. I thought they were robbers,” Diagne said. Instead, it was the start of a days-long ordeal that would take him from a Manhattan federal building to a detention facility in New Jersey before a judge ordered him released.
Diagne lives in the Bronx with his wife and baby and is now pursuing his asylum case, according to Spectrum News NY1. Surveillance video obtained from the Amadou Ly Foundation, a nonprofit helping with his case, shows agents approaching him next to his vehicle that morning. Diagne alleges the agents wore masks and did not initially identify themselves. He says they identified themselves after reaching a nearby gas station, where they chained his waist, legs and hands.
ICE disputed Diagne’s account, saying its officers followed all approved procedures during the arrest, including identifying themselves as ICE law enforcement officers. Diagne alleges he was held in a small, cold room and made to sign documents he did not understand because he does not speak English; he says an interpreter arrived only after he had signed them. He says he was eventually allowed to call his wife.
From 26 Federal Plaza to a New Jersey Facility
Diagne says he was taken to 26 Federal Plaza before being transferred to an ICE detention facility in New Jersey, where he says he was held for four days. A separate account from Documented describes him as released from ICE custody after six days total, and that outlet lists his age as 32, while NY1 reports he is 30 — the two outlets' figures do not match, and neither has been reconciled. Documented also reports that his arrest came one day after he had filed a motion to reopen his asylum case.
The Amadou Ly Foundation filed a petition on Diagne's behalf, and a federal judge ordered his release. Per Documented's reporting, the judge granted both his habeas petition and his motion to reopen the asylum case, canceling the deportation order in the process. ICE has said it released him on Aug. 19 based on a court order, citing what it described as multiple prior arrests for felony trademark counterfeiting and public order crimes.
Diagne disputes that characterization and says he is innocent, maintaining that all charges against him were dismissed. He showed NY1 documentation of a trademark-counterfeiting case's dismissal dated June. He says he entered the United States through the U.S.-Mexico border in April 2023 and was briefly detained in Texas before being allowed to continue pursuing his asylum case.
Afraid to Go Back to Work
Diagne has a work permit and had worked as a DoorDash delivery driver, but he says he has not returned to the job since his release because he fears being detained again. The Amadou Ly Foundation, which assists West African immigrants across the city, is providing temporary financial assistance to his family while he stays home. He's using the time to take English classes and says he hopes to eventually obtain a commercial driver's license to become a truck driver.
Diagne said he hopes to obtain legal status and remain with his family. His daughter, born in the United States, is a U.S. citizen. His next hearing before an immigration judge is scheduled for Dec. 17, according to Diagne.
Part of a Broader Pattern at 26 Federal Plaza
Diagne's stop at 26 Federal Plaza places his case inside a facility that has drawn scrutiny well beyond his own detention. The American Civil Liberties Union describes the site as a temporary holding facility. Axios says the rooms are meant for stays of 12 hours or less. The ACLU says more than 100 people have instead been confined there, sometimes for weeks, in conditions without beds, showers, or adequate medical support, with detainees estimating that ICE packed between 70 and 90 people into a room of roughly 215 square feet. A U.S. District Court has since granted a permanent injunction requiring ICE to improve conditions and reduce overcrowding at the facility.
What the 26 Federal Plaza order requires
According to Axios, the permanent injunction requires ICE to provide at least 50 square feet of qualifying floor space per person in the holding rooms, excluding space within eight feet of a toilet, and to keep the rooms between 68 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit. The reporting cited here does not provide records showing whether ICE has met those requirements, so it does not establish whether the standards have been followed.
Diagne's case also follows other recent encounters between ICE and parents around the country. In Rhode Island, agents attempted to arrest a Guatemalan father while he held his two children, detaining him on the street for about an hour before letting him go, according to The Boston Globe. ICE disputed that account, calling the characterization of officers attempting to detain the father as he held his children “fake news.” In the Bay Area, a Russian immigrant seeking political asylum was released on bond after being detained, according to CBS San Francisco.
For now, Diagne remains in the Bronx with his wife and daughter, waiting for his December hearing and hoping it brings him closer to permanent status. Documented reports that ICE conducted roughly 379,000 arrests during the administration's first year, and that more than 70% of people held in ICE detention had no prior criminal convictions, according to Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse data cited in that reporting.
