Brooklyn and Queens Immigrants Top List for Million-Dollar Compensation for Illegal Detentions in New York

NEW YORK — Thousands of immigrants residing in Brooklyn and Queens could benefit from a court settlement that would grant them a minimum compensation of $10,000 dollars for having been arbitrarily detained in city jails in New York due to detention orders issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between 1997 and 2012.

The law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP (ECBAWM), legal representative of the plaintiffs in the case Onadia v. City of New York, exclusively confirmed that those two districts top the list of potential beneficiaries. According to shared figures, Brooklyn records 5,619 cases and Queens 5,345, followed by The Bronx (4,120), Manhattan (3,623) and Staten Island (157). "The $92.5 million settlement seeks to repair years of civil rights violations against detained immigrants without legal justification," explained attorney Debbie Greenberger, a partner at ECBAWM and advisor in the case. "Many of them were held solely on an ICE order, despite there being no valid legal cause for their detention."

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Federal Judge Mitchell J. Danzinger approved the agreement, and the process of searching for beneficiaries is underway. The deadline for submitting claims was extended to August 15, 2025, allowing more people to initiate the process. Greenberger emphasized that eligible immigrants do not need to be currently in the United States to claim their compensation, and guaranteed the total confidentiality of the process. "We do not work with ICE or any federal agency. The information provided will not be shared," he assured, trying to dispel the fears that many immigrants might have.