Rep. Wasserman Schultz says Broward ICE facility full of people with ‘lawful status’

On her fourth unannounced visit to an Immigration Customs Enforcement detention center — this time to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach — U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the conditions inside the facility on Thursday.

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“This facility is clearly well run,” Wasserman Schultz said, describing the detention center as clean and offering recreational activities, including a library.

But, Wasserman Schultz says, the 671 people locked behind the doors of the center shouldn’t even be there in the first place, describing them as “people who were living their lives…many of whom had lawful status”, such as pending asylum cases or Temporary Protected Status, which has since been terminated for Venezuelans and Haitians, many of whom call South Florida home.

Nationwide, Democratic lawmakers have been making surprise visits to ICE detention facilities after a federal judge ruled in March that the Department of Homeland Security cannot bar members of Congress from conducting unannounced inspections. Last year, the Broward Transitional Center made headlines after Marie Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian woman, died at the facility on April 25.

Standing outside the Pompano Beach facility on Thursday, Wasserman Schultz, who is seeking re-election to represent Florida’s 25th Congressional District in the U.S. House, announced she filed two new bills: the , which she said would prohibit DHS from targeting people based on perceived race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation, and the which she said would redirect $70 billion allocated to ICE toward addressing the nation’s housing affordability crisis and ending homelessness.

Wasserman Schultz described the Broward Transitional Center as a “low-level security facility” and said “the detainees that are housed here have either no criminal history or very low level history,” which she believes is a reason for more humane conditions.

The conditions she described at the Pompano Beach facility stand in stark contrast to what she had to say after her unannounced visit to the ICE office in Miramar on July 2.

Wasserman Schultz described the Miramar office, which is not built to be a long-term holding facility, as “horrific,” with detainees being fed three small microwaveable meals a day and being housed in extremely hot temperatures with no private place to speak with their attorneys.

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Claudia Carolina Rodriguez Caglianone, 29, a constituent of Wasserman Schultz, was held at the Miramar office for eight days. During that time, Rodriguez Caglianone did not shower or change clothes and was packed into a windowless room where many women, including herself, had to sleep on the floor, Wasserman Schultz said.

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Officials at the Miramar office obtained a waiver that allows ICE to hold people there for up to 72 hours instead of the usual 12.

“They told me that no one is held longer than 72 hours. So they lied to me,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Rodriguez Caglianone, who has since been moved to the Broward Transitional Center, entered the United States in 2017 on a tourist visa. She applied for asylum within six months, and was granted TPS in 2023, according to Wasserman Schultz. Her asylum case is pending.

Rodriguez Caglianone, was arrested by ICE agents earlier this month at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

“ICE is overrunning our airports to catch law-abiding residents like Claudia, upending lives, wasting taxpayer dollars, and betraying America’s values,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Rodriguez Caglianone, who earned her master’s degree from St. Thomas University, is a “young woman who spent the majority of her life trying to do the right thing,” her cousin Gabriel Dominguez told media at the Thursday event.

“When people hear about detainees, the picture that comes to mind is somebody that they’ve been told to fear,” Dominguez said. But when he thinks of detainees, he thinks of his cousin, who he said spends her nights watching movies with her grandmother and “shows up for her family, for her friends, and for her community.”

Dominguez spoke before a crowd of supporters holding posters featuring photos of Rodriguez Caglianone and messages such as “Bring CC home.”

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“We can’t allow labels to replace humanity,” Dominguez said.