Happy Tuesday in NYC, where a federal attorney’s mea culpa means an immigrant’s rare reprieve.
A federal judge in Manhattan ruled yesterday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can no longer make arrests in three of New York City’s immigration courts, a favored tactic that resulted in thousands of detentions and became a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city.
The practice resulted in multiple high-profile confrontations and protests. In June 2025, then-Comptroller Brad Lander made national headlines after he was violently detained in the courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza while attempting to escort an immigrant out of the building.
The story took a surprising turn a couple of months ago when attorneys for the Justice Department sent a letter to a federal court admitting that a long-cited 2025 internal memo, which the department and ICE authorities previously claimed established their authority to target immigration courthouses, did not actually apply to immigration courthouses after all. In fact, ICE agents all along had been barred from making arrests in immigration court by a 2021 policy memo. “We deeply regret that this error has come to light at this late stage,” the letter read.
U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel, who ruled on the matter yesterday, said that his decision intends to “correct a clear error and prevent a manifest injustice,” and that federal prosecutors had apologized to him for a “material mistaken statement of fact that the government made to the court.” The ruling applies solely to 26 Federal Plaza, 201 Varick Street and 290 Broadway.
Brad Lander called the apology letter a “bombshell,” in an X post. Amy Belsher, the New York Civil Liberties Union director of immigrants’ rights litigation, wrote in a letter to NPR that it was just “another example of ICE’s brazen disregard for the lives of immigrants in this country.”
Though the mistake was recognized too late for thousands of detainees, advocates were quick to celebrate the victory. “People can now go to immigration court with the understanding that they won’t be arrested there,” Belsher told the New York Times.
This all reminds me of that time I thought I was allowed to eat in restaurants without paying, but then, actually, it turned out I wasn’t. Funny, because I distinctly remember that error resulting in some consequences for me…
A divisive proposed development, the Monitor Point project, slated for the north shore of Greenpoint’s Bushwick Inlet, was approved last week by the City Planning Commission, clearing the way for a final City Council vote.
Roughly 1,300 people gathered at tables and sat on stoops on Remsen Street and Montague Terrace Saturday for the Longest Table 2026, a new potluck tradition in Brooklyn Heights.
A judge ruled that some of the evidence in the Luigi Mangione case can be used during his state murder trial this fall, despite obtaining it without a proper warrant. The allowed evidence includes a gun and a notebook.
Researchers at Brooklyn’s NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Italy’s Istituto Superiore di Sanità analyzed public health data to understand the link between ADHD, obesity and city life.
A female defendant unexpectedly gave birth in a Brooklyn criminal courtroom last week. Advocates are calling for an investigation into reports that she was handcuffed during birth.
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Our World In Photos
Photo: Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP
WASHINGTON, D.C. — ‘Hey, no graffiti in the Senate subway …’: Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., seated, checks his phone while riding a train in the Senate subway at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
Companies are hyping AI the same way they talked up sustainability, but there are ways to fix that
The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen displaying output from ChatGPT, March 21, 2023. Photo: Michael Dwyer/AP
Across corporate earnings calls, investor presentations and marketing pitches, “artificial intelligence” has become the buzzword of choice. Yet a troubling pattern lies under the hype. Many claims vastly overstate actual AI sophistication, misleading people about true capabilities, future outcomes and potential harms.
There are parallels between this “AI washing” phenomenon — when companies oversell the benefits of AI while glossing over the risks — and the greenwashing trend in the recent past, when companies claimed to commit to sustainability but didn’t enact fundamental change.
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The Mini
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Cartoon Sketchbook
By Paresh Nath
For the Road
Grab Your Popcorn: The 29th annual Brooklyn Film Festival begins screenings on May 29, with 130 films lined up for the week-long festival at BRIC Arts Media House, along with screening locations in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. This year’s theme is “The Invitation.” Learn more.
Happy Birthday to “Saturday Night Live” star Michael Che!
On this day in 1780, at midday, near total darkness unaccountably descended on much of New England, causing many people to believe that doomsday had arrived.
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