Brush fires prompt evacuation of Krome detention center for immigrants, ICE says

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has evacuated immigrants housed at the Krome Detention Center as brush fires blaze in the southwestern part of Miami-Dade County, burning 20,000-plus acres, deteriorating air quality, and closing down roads.

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An ICE spokesperson told the Miami Herald Monday that “out of an abundance of caution,” the agency had transferred detainees to other facilities in and out of Florida over the weekend due to “brush fires burning around the detention center.” It’s unclear how many people have been moved or where they have been sent.

“ICE takes the health and safety of those in our custody as our top priority,” the spokesperson said. “ICE officers are trained for this kind of situation, and the evacuation is being completed in an orderly fashion with no incidents to report.”

The agency is working in close contact with the Florida Forest Service, the spokesperson said.

The Krome evacuation comes as state and federal agencies navigate emergency plans at detention facilities throughout Florida to respond to the natural disasters that come with South Florida summers.

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It also comes as questions swirl around the possible closure of Alligator Alcatraz, a state-run facility in the Everglades that holds ICE detainees. Its potential closure would reduce ICE’s bed space capacity in South Florida, a focal point of federal immigration enforcement. Only days prior to the bushfires that prompted the Krome evacuations, ICE announced it had moved detainees to Krome from Alligator Alcatraz for “safety” reasons because of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Among the detainees moved recently from Krome is prominent Haitian businessman Dimitri Vorbe, who was transferred to a facility in Mississippi. His removal from the Southern District of Florida is a violation of a federal judge’s order, his lawyers say.

Several lawyers also confirmed with the Herald on Monday that their clients had been moved from Krome, citing concerns about the fires.

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Daniel Ortiz, an immigration attorney at Serving Immigrants, said one of his clients had his hearing postponed on Monday morning at the immigration court at Krome. Judge Liviu Lungu informed Ortiz that he was being transferred to a different facility due to “a fire in the area.” Lungu presided his courtroom remotely, Ortiz said, and there was only a guard in the courtroom, usually packed with detainees awaiting hearings.

“He mentioned that the reason they didn’t know yet, or that the department or the government didn’t know yet where they are transferring these detainees, is because the other facility for the South Side [”Alligator Alcatraz”] is going to close, so they can’t house people there.”

There were about 5,300 ICE detainees in Florida as of early April, according to TRAC researchers at Syracuse University.

An emergency official familiar with the situation said there had been discussions with federal immigration officials about a potential evacuation of the Krome facility due to multiple brush fires a few miles away that had been ongoing since last week. By Saturday morning, the fire had increased in activity, prompting officials to make the decision to move the immigrants being housed at Krome.

A spokesman for the Florida Forest Service said Monday that the division had been working with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue in response to the many fires in the South Florida area and that the new fire remained 15% contained and “there aren’t any structures or property threatened.”

The Krome Detention Center is one of Florida’s detention centers that hold immigrants for ICE. The facility, located on the edge of the county near the Everglades has immigration courts and medical facilities, including a mental health unit. The Trump administration in April 2025 erected an additional tent facility there to house immigrants as part of the federal government’s strategy to expand detention and deportation capacity.

The western portions of Miami-Dade County have been experiencing brush fires since early June, as temperatures in the region crank up and amid an ongoing drought in the Everglades. They have burned through over thousands of acres over the last month. Firefighting crews have slowly regained control, with roads reopening and air quality conditions improving.

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Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.

This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 6:30 PM.