Normally, the twelfth floor of the federal building at 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan is bustling with activity, as immigrants, their families, attorneys, and personnel from Homeland Security and the Justice Department come and go to immigration courtrooms that see dozens of hearings a day.
Since Donald Trump threw the federal government into partial shutdown over the “crisis” surrounding $5.7 billion in funding for a wall with Mexico, however, the space has been deserted, with a lone guard sitting at a table across a message board labeled “Immigration Court” on a recent Wednesday afternoon. As a result, far away from the border where Trump wants to keep immigrants out of the U.S, a new—and real—crisis is brewing in the country’s immigration courts.