EPA employees are disconcerted by an uptick in migrant detainments in the lobby of their federal office building in Manhattan, according to a union official.
Agency employees in EPA’s Region 2 headquarters work out of a federal building that also houses a Justice Department immigration court and other federal agency offices. That building has seen increased law enforcement activity as the Trump administration pursues a sweeping immigration crackdown.
EPA union members have relayed stories of seeing people detained in the lobby of their New York building, said Suzy Englot, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3911, which represents EPA employees. Englot is an EPA staffer who also works in the building.
EPA alerted staffers in the regional office that a “heightened” federal law enforcement presence would be taking place in the lobby areas of the buildings at 290 Broadway and 26 Federal Plaza and that the increased activity “is expected to continue for the foreseeable future,” according to an email sent to EPA staff and shared with POLITICO’s E&E News by agency spokesperson Molly Vaseliou.
