Feds claim jailed migrants at NYC ICE facility could use toothbrushes as 'weapons'

The Justice Department is bristling at the idea of providing toothbrushes to jailed migrants at a Manhattan ICE facility — claiming the detainees could use the teeth-cleaning tools as dangerous “weapons.”

Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton’s claim came after a judge ordered Wednesday that conditions in a makeshift jail at 26 Federal Plaza be improved, acting on complaints that asylum seekers have been kept in dirty, overcrowded cells. 3

“Toothbrushes can readily be improvised as weapons,” Clayton’s office wrote, adding that ICE agents would prefer to continue providing migrants with “teeth-cleaning wipes” instead.

The feds did not provide an example of a migrant using a toothbrush as a weapon.

Jail inmates have fashioned the products into sharp tools in the past by shaving