Amid whistleblower claims, advocates ask lawmakers to visit ICE office in Miramar

Immigration admin September 23, 2026 0 Comments

Amid whistleblower claims, advocates ask lawmakers to visit ICE office in Miramar

Immigration activists and community leaders gathered on Wednesday at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miramar to denounce whistleblower allegations that immigrants held there are staying in overly crowded quarters, using filthy bathrooms, sleeping on the floor and being restrained.

“How can this be happening without any transparency, independent supervision, accountability? We have a right to know what’s happening behind these doors,” said Elena Muñoz, a represenative of the Miramar Circle of Protection, a group that supports immigrants weekly at the facility.

They called on Florida members of Congress, who can visit the facility unannounced under federal law, to see the situation for themselves.

“Imagine that conditions are so bad that a whistleblower has come forward,” said Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, the policy coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee of Florida.

READ MORE: Extreme overcrowding and abuse plague Florida ICE facilities, whistleblowers say

The public showing comes days after congressional Democrats published allegations and images from a whistleblower denouncing abusive conditions in Miramar that show people sleeping on the floor, being held in a garage entry, and overflowing toilets. On Wednesday, the activists displayed the photos behind them as they spoke.

The event also follows separate reports from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General that found severe overcrowding at the Krome Detention Center in Miami and detention standard violations at the now-defunct facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades. At Alligator Alcatraz, the report detailed the use of a small cage to hold immigrants as punishment.

Also released on Monday were whistleblower allegations about another ICE facility in Orlando, where people are so crammed they are forced to stand up and have no without access to the outside for up to two weeks, according to Democrats on the Oversight Committee.

READ MORE: Extreme overcrowding and abuse plague Florida ICE facilities, whistleblowers say

The activists also held a press conference in July at the Miramar ICE facilty to denounce conditions there. That’s when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited unannounced and called the conditions she witnessed “horrific.” Last month, a Miami Herald investigation found that 911 medical calls from the facility had risen sharply between July 2025 and July 2026.

Maria Bilbao, the campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, criticized Miami’s Republican delegation in Congress for not yet having visited the center, which is typically used for routine ICE check-ins. Under the second Trump administration, it has become a detention hotspot.

“They’re always talking about human rights in Nicaragua, in Venezuela, in Cuba. When this is happening in their own backyard, where are their investigations?” said Bilbao.

A religious worker who showed up to support the activists said he saw a waste management truck come in Wednesday morning. That’s after photos of a pile of trashbags and dirty toilets emerged as part of the whistleblower’s claims.

In a statement to the Miami Herald, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not address the whistleblower’s allegations and the photos detailing conditions at Miramar.

“Miramar is a processing facility not a detention facility. Illegal aliens are processed and transferred to permanent housing at a detention facility,” said the spokesperson. “If you break the law, you will face the consequences. Illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”