Justin Lane / EPA
Immigrants claim that they were forced to sleep on the ground in overcrowded rooms and assaulted by ICE agents. There are even reports of cases where they had to eat kneel and chained.
A new one from Human Rights Watch (HRW) reveals that there are systematic cases of abuse and overcrowding in Three Detention Centers of the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE) in southern Florida, classifying conditions such as “inhuman” and “degrading”.
The document, based on detained interviews, describes an incident at the Miami Federal Detention Center, where immigrants were handcuffed with their backs behind their backs and had to kneel “as dogs” to eat food in spherovitis dishes. “We had to eat like animals”Said one detainee identified as Peter.
Overcrowding and negligence are pointed out as widespread problems. At the Krome North Processing Center in Western Miami, women were allegedly obliged to use bathrooms in the sight of men And they were deprived of access to showers, medical care and proper food.
The detainees reported having been more than 24 hours in buses, where unhealthy conditions left the air “with a strong smell to feces“.” The bus was disgusting. There was the kind of lard house where people usually only urinate, but as we spent so long in the bus and they didn’t let us leave, others defended there, ”said one man.
Already inside Krome North, overcrowding caused some to spend up to 12 days in cold rooms and the Sleep on the cold ground floor. “When I left, almost all the rooms were crowded. Some were so full that men couldn’t even sit down, everyone had to stand,” reveals Andrea, a detainee.
At Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, immigrants reported that they were often denied access to medical care or psychological. In another incident, the Miami downtown guards will have turned off a surveillance chamber and assaulted detainees protesting against the lack of medical care for a spitting blood, causing various injuries, including a broken finger.
The report underlines the significant increase in the number of arrests under the Trump administration. In mid -June, the daily number of detained people reached 56 400, compared to an average of 37 500 in 2024. 72% have no criminal historysecond to HRW.
