In 2025, shifts in US immigration policy transformed courthouses into focal points for mass deportation efforts by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Masked ICE agents detained undocumented migrants immediately following their hearings, often leading to deeply traumatic family separations. These aggressive tactics, coupled with severely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the 10th-floor holding facility in the Jacob Javits Federal Building in New York, prompted fierce public protests, class-action lawsuits, and the arrest of local elected officials demanding accountability.
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2026 Photo Contest - North and Central America - Stories
ICE Arrests at New York Court
Photographer
Carol Guzy
ZUMA Press, iWitness, for Miami Herald
Camera
Z 8
Jury comment
This project powerfully documents the human cost of family separations by ICE in the United States; capturing fear, chaos, and the surreal reality faced by law abiding families. Through the photographer’s sustained, self-driven commitment, the images reveal inhumane details—masked agents, a shackled young woman and a brutalized mother—highlighting both suffering and family unity. The work exemplifies the crucial role of visual journalism in evidencing the consequences of government actions that might otherwise go unseen.