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Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026

Today's SCOOP is brought to you by our members.

Dear New Yorkers,

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now holding immigrants in two cell blocks inside the Metropolitan Detention Center, the federal lockup in Brooklyn that also houses Nicolás Maduro and Luigi Mangione.

Rep. Dan Goldman, whose district encompasses the prison, toured the facility on Wednesday — the first member of Congress to do so since the agency began housing immigrants there last summer. Goldman said ICE officials told him that 191 immigrants were being held as of Wednesday afternoon across two cell blocks with a combined capacity of 248, nearly a fifth of the prison's overall capacity of 1,300.

Immigrants held at MDC have described frequent lockdowns, inedible food, and difficulty accessing medical care, according to federal habeas corpus lawsuits and interviews conducted by THE CITY in recent months.

"It's suffering. That's what I went through there," said a 30-year-old man from Guinea, speaking in French. "People are suffering there."

Read more here.

Weather ☁️

Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain in the afternoon.

MTA 🚇

In Brooklyn, no B trains between Kings Highway and Brighton Beach. Find all the MTA’s planned changes and the latest delays here.

Alternate side parking 🚙

It’s in effect today, Feb. 19.

By the way…

Visitors from around the world will flock to the city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer. Our partners at Healthbeat spoke to the chief of the special pathogens program at NYC Health + Hospitals/ Bellevue Hospital about what they are doing to prepare.

Our Other Top Stories

The Gateway project is back on track. On Wednesday morning, the Trump administration released millions in previously withheld federal funding for the rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey, allowing construction to restart as soon as next week. Work had halted on Feb. 6 when the project's line of credit ran out, after Trump had terminated federal funding during last year's government shutdown. Residents at the Stanley Isaacs Houses in Yorkville are voting on the future of their development. A 30-day voting period began late last week, giving tenants three options: remain under their current federal funding arrangement, known as Section 9; join the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program; or transfer to the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust. The latter two options are pathways NYCHA is pursuing to help secure the billions of dollars in repairs the authority needs. Eric Goldwyn, an author of the new A Better Billion report from the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University, joined FAQ NYC  to explain its modest proposal to remap the city with 12 new projects, 64 new subway stations and 41 new miles of rail — all for about the same cost as making buses free.

Reporter’s Notebook

Bill Banning 24-Hour Shifts for Home Care Workers Gets Second Shot

Home health care workers are taking their crusade to abolish 24-hour shifts to City Hall — again.

Approximately 30 people, many of them immigrant home care workers from China and Latin America, testified at a City Council hearing on Wednesday urging lawmakers to pass a bill that would cap shifts to 12 hours per day, or no more than 56 hours per week, unless they receive two weeks’ notice from their employer.

For more than a decade, workers and advocates have urged state and local lawmakers to end longstanding rules that allow 24-hour home care workers to be compensated for only 13 hours of work a day, under the condition they get sleep and meal time. Workers claim they routinely work up to 96 straight hours without breaks — while only getting compensated for about half of that time.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Chinatown Council Member Christopher Marte, first introduced the bill in 2022 but it failed to advance the Council’s labor committee.

— Claudia Irizarry Aponte

Things To Do

Here are some free and low-cost things going on around the city this week.

Thursday, Feb. 19: Voices of a People’s History presents an evening of music and readings inspired by the new book “Black History Is For Everyone” by New York Public Library educator Brian Jones on the Upper West Side. Free, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19: Chelsea’s Agora Gallery presents its seventh annual photography showcase, featuring works selected from hundreds of global submissions. Free, reception from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20: Members of the National Arts Club’s Literary Committee present short readings from their original works on the theme of creating opportunity from difficulty, or even crisis, in a world full of problems. Free, at 6:00 p.m. Register here.

THE KICKER: Searching for a place with charm? Manhattan’s oldest intact apartment, built in 1879, is on the market for the first time in over two decades.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Thursday.

Love,

THE CITY

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