Central Islip federal judge demands answers on Long Island ICE detainee's treatment

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to explain ICE agents’ alleged "inhumane and unlawful" treatment of a Jamaican native, including holding him overnight at the Central Islip federal courthouse in a cold, "putrid and cramped" cell.

Erron Anthony Clarke was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Dec. 5 after appearing in Hauppauge for what he believed was a necessary proceeding toward becoming a permanent resident of the United States, according to court documents. But after he finished, agents detained him.

Clarke was then held overnight alongside eight other men at the Central Islip courthouse in the cell, with an open toilet, intended for the temporary detention of a single person, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York Gary R. Brown said in an order and memorandum filed Thursday.

Clarke's attorney filed a petition to get him out of custody, arguing, among other things, he had been denied due process. Agents continued to detain Clarke after the court "ordered his immediate release on bail" and ignored the court’s demand to produce him in person for a Dec. 11 court proceeding, the judge said. The night before that hearing, ICE agents transferred Clarke from the courthouse hold room to the private Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey. He attended the proceeding via telephone.

ICE, along with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, also ignored several court directives asking for more information on Clarke's movements and photographs of the hold room, according to Brown’s order.

Brown called into question multiple documents presented by the government, including an unsigned warrant for Clarke’s arrest and a missing time stamp on a notice to appear, the form that initiates his removal proceedings.

"There remains a serious question as to whether the [notice to appear] preceded Clarke’s arrest; if not, then ICE improperly arrested him," Brown said. He added that ICE did not offer "insight into this question."

Clarke was released Dec. 12. Brown ruled that while the case is being litigated, he should be out on bail. “I find that, under these facts and circumstances, the release of Petitioner on bail pending the resolution of these proceedings was required by applicable law and human decency.”

Clarke and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

The judge, a Brooklyn native, was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019.

Documentation submitted by ICE agents regarding Clarke’s whereabouts contain information "evasive and demonstrably false," according to Brown. In one example, an agent reported that Clarke was removed from the Central Islip courthouse at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 10 and booked at the Newark detention facility only 30 minutes later, a time frame that is "objectively impossible."

"These misstatements of fact serve to undermine the information presented and the reliability of the records maintained by ICE," Brown said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not reply to Newsday’s inquiries regarding Clarke’s removal proceedings, the practice of detaining people at the Central Islip federal courthouse and Brown’s order.

John Marzulli, a spokesperson for the Eastern District of New York, declined to comment on ICE’s alleged practice of holding detainees overnight at the courthouse when reached by telephone on Friday.

The district court judge’s order calls on the government to justify its actions and treatment of Clarke by Dec. 30 or he will "consider entering an order of contempt or some other remedy in connection with ICE’s failures to follow its orders in this case."

Clarke arrived in the United States in 2018 on a work visa. When the visa expired that November, he remained in the county without authorization, according to the order. He married a U.S. citizen in 2023, which "may entitle him to permanent residency," according to Brown’s Thursday filing.

On Nov. 6, Clarke’s wife filed an application with DHS sponsoring him for permanent residence, a matter that remains pending, according to court documents. In the application, Clarke admitted to working in the United States without authorization.

Nine days later, Homeland Security directed Clarke to appear in Hauppauge on Dec. 5 for a biometrics collection — collecting fingerprints, photographs and electronic signatures — which is "a regular part of his application," court documents said.

After his fingerprints were collected at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Application Support Center on Wheeler Road, ICE agents "encountered" Clarke in his car around 12:15 p.m., Brown said. Agents then followed Clarke, pulled him over in Central Islip and booked him at the federal courthouse at 11:28 p.m.

Around 12 hours later, he was transported to the Nassau County jail in East Meadow, according to Brown. While an ICE agent concluded "under oath" that Clarke was in the Nassau facility for less than 65 hours, an examination of booking times presented by the same agent revealed Clarke remained in Nassau around 77 hours, which violated the county’s 72-hour detention agreement with ICE.

On Dec. 8, while Clarke remained in East Meadow, attorney Lorne Kelman filed a court order seeking the Jamaica native's release. In a separate filing the next day, Brown noted that Clarke's case "in many important respects, bears similarity to several recent decisions in which district judges in this Court and the Southern District of New York have grappled with arrests by DHS which ran afoul of Due Process protections, statutes and regulations."

On Dec. 9, Clarke was returned to the Central Islip hold room, an area ICE described to the court as about "10’ x 7’ or 8,’" according to Brown. The room’s conditions "violate numerous minimum standards set by ICE to ensure the safe and humane treatment of detainees," including floor space, according to the district court judge.

"The evidence reveals that ICE is ... ignoring its requirements concerning the provision of seating, cleaning, safety inspection, bedding, meals, temperature and the requirement that ‘[h]old rooms with toilets shall allow for an appropriate amount of privacy,’" Brown wrote.  

After more than 36 hours in Central Islip, ICE transported Clarke to the Newark detention facility, according to Brown.

On Dec. 11, after Clarke appeared at his court hearing by telephone, Brown determined he presented "neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community," according to court documents. Brown ordered Clarke's release after his wife posted a $10,000 appearance bond. ICE did not release Clarke until the following day.