‘Horrific’: Lawmaker denounces conditions at Miramar ICE office as detentions ramp up

An Immigration Customs Enforcement office in Miramar where immigrants go for routine appointments but are often detained is so overcrowded that conditions are “horrific,” a lawmaker who visited the facility on Thursday said.

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After an unannounced visit to the field office, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that people are spread across four holding pens inside, and that she saw about 70 to 75 men “crammed into a very tiny room.”

“There were people laying on the floors, people standing, like literally they were on top of each other, she said, adding that they were being fed three small microwaveable meals a day. She also said that the spaces where they are being held are very hot.

Wasserman Schultz said that, given the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that paves the way for the Trump administration to terminate deportation protections under Temporary Protected Status without judicial review, she expects a “very significant uptick” of people processed and detained there.

“You wouldn’t wish the conditions of these people to be detained on anyone you love, certainly, but really anyone,” she said. “They are inhumane.”

The overcrowding comes as ICE ramps up arrests across the country as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Over the last week, the agency has arrested 10,000 people, including a nun in Texas who was later released after outcry from officials, community leaders and activists. The New York Times reported the directive came from the White House.

ICE did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the conditions that Wasserman Schultz described during the press conference on Thursday. Wasserman Schultz said that ICE officials told her that a “change in policy” had led to an increase in people being held at Miramar, but they did not indicate whether the numbers had gone up in the past week.

During her visit, Wasserman Schultz witnessed the arrival of three fire trucks, two during the press conference itself.

“They have an average of about one every day, according to them, of a medical case where they have to call 911,” she said.

The truth behind the numbers is uncertain, since inspections are scarce or nonexistent. Wasserman Schultz said there haven’t been any inspections at Miramar since the current director took over in October 2025.

“Hard to know that you’re meeting ICE standards if a facility is not inspected,” she added.

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Maria Bilbao, a community advocate with the Miramar Circle of Protection, a group that has been going to support immigrants who have appointments there weekly for nearly a decade, said that she had seen a dramatic uptick in cars coming in since Monday; 33 unmarked vehicles entered the facility during a three hour period, she said.

“The first Trump administration was terrible. But this is much worse than that. I consider this state-sponsored terrorism,” Bilbao, who is also a member of the American Friends Service Committee, told the Herald.

The Trump administration has also deployed ICE officers to pick up people after their immigration court hearings. On Thursday, a Miami Herald reporter did not see any agents at the immigration court downtown. A federal judge in California banned ICE from carrying out those arrests last week.

At the Miramar field office on Thursday, there were relatives of immigrants doing check-ins waiting outside for their family members, including two Cuban women waiting for their husbands, an American man waiting for his Brazilian spouse of 20 years, and a Cuban man who was held at the Alligator Alcatraz state immigration facility. They held their breaths under the hot Florida sun to see whether their loved ones would come out of their appointments or be sent to an ICE detention center.

Jorge Alain Hernandez had a check-in appointment at the Miramar office late 2025, where he was detained for three days at the same facility. He described the little sustenance he and his co-detainees were given as “dog food”.

“Not even a baby lives off of it,” he said.

Following his stint at Miramar, Hernandez spent seven months alternating between Alligator Alcatraz and the El Paso Service Processing Center in Texas. He returned Thursday to Miramar for another immigration check-in, this time hoping he wouldn’t leave the facility malnourished.

Cesar Penate, a 59-year-old Venezuelan man, had his check-in appointment on Thursday. The appointment had been routine but slow because of the volume of people, he said. Penate came to the U.S. on a visa 2018 with his family, but was detained by the Coast Guard in May while working as a boat captain. He showed his ID and work permit, but the Coast Guard sent him to immigration authorities. He spent a month detained by ICE and was recently released through a court order.

“Coming to these places is always worrisome,” he said.

Maritza Rodriguez, a 60-year-old woman from Havana who fled Cuba because of her political activities as a member of the Damas de Blanco group, waited for her husband of 38 years to come out of the Miramar facility. They are both waiting on green card applications but have so far been unable to obtain them because of the paperwork they received in the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. Once a year since arriving, they go to check-ins at the Miramar office.

But since returned to office, the appointments have evolved from gone from routine to nerve-wracking.

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“I am putting myself in God’s hands and hoping it all goes well,” Rodrigue said.

Miami Herald staff writrer Milena Malaver contributed to this story.