Migrants held at the Miami detention center have reported shocking abuse and inhumane treatment, including being shackled, denied medical care, and forced to eat while kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs, according to a recent report by The Guardian. The investigation highlights severe overcrowding and widespread mistreatment at three ICE facilities in South Florida.
“We Had to Eat Like Animals,” Says Detainee
At the downtown Miami federal detention center, multiple detainees described being shackled and forced to eat food from styrofoam plates while kneeling on the floor. “We had to eat like animals,” said Pedro, one detainee, echoing the sentiments of many held in these conditions. Men were often confined in holding cells for hours without lunch, only receiving food around 7 p.m. while remaining shackled.
Krome North Processing Center Reports Similar Abuses
The Krome North Processing Center in South Florida has also been cited for serious abuses. Female detainees reported being forced to use toilets in full view of men, denied basic hygiene like showers, and not given enough food. Overcrowding was so severe that some migrants spent over 24 hours locked on a bus in the facility’s parking lot, with both men and women held together. One person described, “The bus became disgusting… Because of this, the whole bus smelled strongly of feces.” Many detainees spent up to 12 days in cold, bare intake rooms, with no bedding or warm clothes.
Death and Denied Care at Broward Transitional Center
At the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, a 44-year-old Haitian woman died in April after reportedly being denied proper medical and psychological care. The same report revealed that staff turned off surveillance cameras as a “disturbance control team” used force against detainees protesting the lack of medical care, resulting in at least one individual suffering a broken finger.
Overcrowding Sparks Construction of “Alligator Alcatraz”
Overcrowding at these Florida facilities has led to the rapid construction of a new jail, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which is designed to detain up to 5,000 migrants awaiting deportation.
Majority of Detainees Have No Criminal History
Nationally, immigration detention numbers averaged about 56,400 per day in mid-June, with nearly 72% of detainees having no criminal history.
Advocacy Groups Sound the Alarm
Katie Blankenship, immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South, told reporters: “The anti-immigrant escalation and enforcement tactics under the Trump administration are terrorizing communities and ripping families apart, which is especially cruel in the state of Florida, which thrives because of its immigrant communities.”
Blankenship added, “The rapid, chaotic, and cruel approach to arresting and locking people up is literally deadly and causing a human rights crisis that will plague this state and the entire country for years to come.”
