MIAMI, July 21, 2025 — Migrants were shackled and forced to kneel to eat from styrofoam plates, described by one as “like dogs,” according to a Monday report detailing conditions at three overcrowded South Florida facilities. The downtown federal detention center incident is one of several alleged abuses at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the state since January.
Migrants Forced to Eat Like “Animals” in Overcrowded Facilities
Dozens of men were held for hours in a packed cell, denied lunch until 7 p.m. and forced to eat while still shackled.
- Migrants at South Florida ICE facilities reported inhumane conditions, including being shackled while eating.
- Female detainees were reportedly denied gender-appropriate care and made to use toilets in view of men.
- One facility saw detainees held for over 24 hours on a bus, leading to unsanitary conditions.
- A Haitian woman died in April at the Broward transitional center, where detainees reported inadequate medical care.
- Advocacy groups link the abuses to intensified detentions and deportations under the Trump administration.
The report, compiled from interviews with detainees by advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South, highlights degrading treatment as commonplace across all three facilities.
Conditions at Krome North and Broward Transitional Center
At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were allegedly made to use toilets in full view of men. They also reported being denied gender-appropriate care, showers, or adequate food.
Some detainees reported being held on a bus in the parking lot for more than 24 hours due to overcrowding. Men and women were housed together, unshackled only for toilet use, which quickly became clogged. “The bus became disgusting,” one man recounted. “The whole bus smelled strongly of feces.”
Upon entering the facility, many spent up to 12 days in a frigid intake room, dubbed “the ice box,” sleeping on the cold concrete floor without bedding or warm clothing. Visitation rooms were also packed, with some detainees unable to sit.
At the Broward transitional center in Pompano Beach, where 44-year-old Haitian woman Marie Ange Blaise died in April, detainees reported routine denial of adequate medical or psychological care. Some experienced delayed treatment for injuries and chronic conditions, facing dismissive or hostile staff responses.
What are the reported causes for these conditions? Advocacy groups attribute the documented abuses and inhumane conditions to a significant worsening since January and a subsequent push to ramp up detentions and deportations.
Overcrowding and Policy Impact
Overcrowding was cited as a major issue at all three facilities, contributing to Florida’s decision to build the “Alligator Alcatraz” jail in the Everglades, designed to hold up to 5,000 undocumented migrants.
Nationally, immigration detention numbers averaged 56,400 per day in mid-June, with nearly 72% having no criminal history. The daily average for all of 2024 was 37,500.
Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South, stated, “The anti-immigrant escalation and enforcement tactics under the Trump administration are terrorizing communities and ripping families apart.” She added, “The rapid, chaotic, and cruel approach to arresting and locking people up is literally deadly.”
