Will there be a new ICE detention center in Miami area? Homeland Security is looking

The Department of Homeland Security is on the hunt for a new immigration detention facility in the Miami area, according to a procurement request issued earlier this month.

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The agency is looking for a contractor-operated, or “turnkey,” facility with at least 700 detention beds within 50 miles of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Miami Field Office at 865 SW 78 Ave. in Plantation. The request is one of several such detention facilities DHS is looking for across the country for people in ICE custody.

In addition to housing detainees, the facility must be able to provide medical and mental health care services, transportation, guard services, food service and detention services.

“Under this acquisition, the contractor will provide detention management services to include all personnel, management, equipment, supplies, and services necessary for performance of all aspects of the contract,” the request, first reported by Local 10 News, said.

DHS is also seeking facilities with at least 1, 800 beds in the Philadelphia area and at least 1,500 beds each in the Seattle and Denver areas.

The request comes on the heels of the closure of Alligator Alcatraz, the state’s controversial and hastily erected immigration detention center in the Everglades, and as the Trump administration reportedly prepares to ramp up ICE enforcement following the end of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation.

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing DHS to move forward with plans to end TPS for more than 300,000 Haitians even as legal challenges continue in the lower courts.

Immigration advocates and Haitian communities in South Florida, New York and Springfield, Ohio, have all expressed concerns about a surge in ICE raids that could require more detention space.

On Wednesday, advocates gathered outside the ICE check-in facility in Miramar to denounce an increase in arrests across South Florida and the growing role of local governments in facilitating federal immigration enforcement. While decrying the situation, American Friends Service Committee activists expressed concerns about increased activities observed outside the facility

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Billy Botsch, who works with the American Friends Service Committee, said that the vehicle of a company known for erecting temporary structures, including tents, was parked at the facility, and its occupants were seen “conversing with field office officials.”

“We’re not sure what that’s about; it’s unusual,” Botsch said. The group was joined at the Miramar ICE facility on Wednesday by advocates with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, which also works to protect immigrant families as part of their mission.

Botsch said portable toilets had been placed in the rear parking lot, which “suggests that the facilities inside the building are not sufficient for whatever they have planned.”

He added that ICE also appears to have changed how people are being processed at the building.

“They’re also not using the garage they normally use to take people directly into the building, and it seems to have a temporary processing setup,” he said. “It’s hard to tell.”

The ICE field office did not respond to a request for comment. A DHS spokesperson told said the agency does not speak about future operations but conducts enforcement across the country every day.

Yareliz Mendez Zamora, another American Friends Service Committee worker, said advocates have also observed families being transferred from the Miramar facility to hotels before deportation.

“When it comes to families, what we’ve seen is that they’re held here for a couple of hours, maybe a day, and then they’re sent to a hotel, and so at that hotel is where they’re not allowed to contact anybody,” Mendez said. “I mean, we spent over 24 hours without hearing from a family member — and then they’re deported.”

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Miami Herald reporter Morgan Mullings contributed to this report.