At 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, immigrants from countries including Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were packed into a small, deteriorating office room to appear before an immigration judge via video link, as part of a DHS-run hearing system. The rooms, previously closed to outsiders and staffed by ICE personnel, opened to public observers this week, revealing practices advocates say undermine due process, including rushed cases, only one family member allowed to hear rights advisals, and hearings held in DHS-controlled space. A remote judge calling in from outside New York insisted on applying his own federal district's legal precedents rather than New York's.