ISTANBUL

A newly surfaced video obtained by ABC News appears to show more than a dozen migrants being held in cramped, unsanitary conditions inside a federal building in Manhattan, prompting outrage from lawmakers and immigrant advocates.

Filmed by a detainee and shared via a civic group with New York State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz, the footage shows migrants lying on thermal blankets, sitting on benches, and using toilets separated only by a waist-high barrier inside a room on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, a known US immigration processing center.

"Look how they have us, the situation that we're in... like dogs in here," the detainee says in Spanish. He later adds: "The American dream. Immigration, 26 Federal Plaza."

The New York Immigration Coalition, which distributed the footage in a press release Tuesday, said the facility is functioning more as a detention center than a processing site and should be subject to congressional oversight.

Last month, Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman were denied entry to the facility by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

"The question is, why can't we go in? What are they hiding?" Goldman told reporters. "This is unacceptable."

In a statement in response to the videos, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin rejected the claims, insisting: "26 Federal Plaza is not a detention center. It is a processing center where illegal aliens are briefly processed to be transferred to an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention facility."

She added that claims of overcrowding or poor conditions are "categorically false," asserting that detainees receive meals, medical care, and legal access. "ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding," she said.

But Assemblywoman Cruz said the videos are "extremely angering" and reinforced her belief that DHS is intentionally hiding the truth.

"They don’t want people to see exactly what they’re doing, which is violating people’s human rights," she told ABC News. "We need to fight back to make sure that folks are treated with dignity... with food, medication, a bed, a bathroom."

Advocates continue to warn of inadequate food and unhygienic conditions for those detained in the facility.