Latest news with #AmericansForImmigrantJustice
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- The Guardian
Migrants at Ice jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs', report alleges
Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates 'like dogs', according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities. The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at lails operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) n the state since January, chronicled by the advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees. Dozens of men had been packed into a holding cell for hours, the report said, and denied lunch until about 7pm. They remained shackled with the food on chairs in front of them. 'We had to eat like animals,' one detainee named Pedro said. Degrading treatment by guards is commonplace in all three jails, the groups say. At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were made to use toilets in full view of men being held there, and were denied access to gender-appropriate care, showers or adequate food. The jail was so far beyond capacity, some transferring detainees reported, that they were held for more than 24 hours in a bus in the parking lot. Men and women were confined together, and unshackled only when they needed to use the single toilet, which quickly became clogged. 'The bus became disgusting. It was the type of toilet in which normally people only urinate but because we were on the bus for so long, and we were not permitted to leave it, others defecated in the toilet,' one man said. 'Because of this, the whole bus smelled strongly of feces.' When the group was finally admitted into the facility, they said, many spent up to 12 days crammed into a frigid intake room they christened la hielera – the ice box – with no bedding or warm clothing, sleeping instead on the cold concrete floor. There was so little space at Krome, and so many detainees, the report says, that every available room was used to hold new arrivals. 'By the time I left, almost all the visitation rooms were full. A few were so full men couldn't even sit, all had to stand,' Andrea, a female detainee, said. At the third facility, the Broward transitional center in Pompano Beach, where a 44-year-old Haitian woman, Marie Ange Blaise, died in April, detainees said they were routinely denied adequate medical or psychological care. Some suffered delayed treatment for injuries and chronic conditions, and dismissive or hostile responses from staff, the report said. In one alleged incident in April at the downtown Miami jail, staff turned off a surveillance camera and a 'disturbance control team' brutalized detainees who were protesting about a lack of medical attention to one of their number who was coughing up blood. One detainee suffered a broken finger. All three facilities were severely overcrowded, the former detainees said, a contributory factor in Florida's decision to quickly build the controversial 'Alligator Alcatraz' jail in the Everglades intended to eventually hold up to 5,000 undocumented migrants awaiting deportation. Immigration detention numbers nationally were at an average of 56,400 a day in mid-June, with almost 72% having no criminal history, according to the report. The daily average during the whole of 2024 was 37,500, HRW said. The groups say that the documented abuses reflect inhumane conditions inside federal immigration facilities that have worsened significantly since Trump's January inauguration and subsequent push to ramp up detentions and deportations. 'The anti-immigrant escalation and enforcement tactics under the Trump administration are terrorizing communities and ripping families apart, which is especially cruel in the state of Florida, which thrives because of its immigrant communities,' said Katie Blankenship, immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South. 'The rapid, chaotic, and cruel approach to arresting and locking people up is literally deadly and causing a human rights crisis that will plague this state and the entire country for years to come.' The Guardian has contacted Ice for comment.
CBS News
22-07-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Human rights groups allege "inhumane" conditions at South Florida immigration facilities
A coalition of human rights organizations released a report Monday alleging that conditions at three immigration detention facilities in South Florida are "inhumane," with claims that detainees are overcrowded, denied medical care and subjected to degrading treatment—accusations the facility operators firmly deny. The report, published by Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South, outlines disturbing allegations about the Krome Detention Center, the Federal Detention Center (FDC) in Miami, and the Broward Transitional Center. Harpinder Chauhan, a deported former detainee from England, shared his experience with CBS News Miami after being returned to the United Kingdom on June 6, 2025. "There was no lack of human dignity or the situation that we were in," Chauhan said. "It's soul-destroying." Chauhan, who said he had lived legally in the United States for nine years on an investor visa, was picked up by ICE agents on February 11 for theft of sales taxes—a charge he said he was already repaying. "We are not criminals here; we are people waiting on a process," Chauhan said. He said he was first taken to Krome and later transferred to FDC Miami, where he described extreme conditions. "My room didn't have AC. Sometimes I'd lie on the floor just to gasp the cold air through the door. We'd be locked in the cell five days at a time," he said. Chauhan also alleged the toilet in his cell did not work and claimed he was denied medication for multiple health conditions, including heart disease, pancreatitis and diabetes. He said he later collapsed after being moved to the Broward Transitional Center. "Eventually I collapsed about 5 days after the arrival there," said Chauhan. Belkis Wille, associate crisis and conflict director with Human Rights Watch, contributed to the report and said detainees described being forced to eat in humiliating conditions. "I interviewed two men who were put in this position, both of them who spoke about how deeply degrading it was that they had to essentially eat like animals," Wille said. "People told us they were held in mass overcrowded cells and conditions they had limited access to basic hygiene, showers, bathrooms, soap even," Wille added. In response, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, which operates the Broward Transitional Center, issued a lengthy statement denying the accusations. "GEO strongly denies these allegations. We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)," the statement read in part. The company emphasized that its facilities are not overcrowded and offer around-the-clock medical care, access to legal and family visitation, religious accommodations, and accredited healthcare services. "Our contracts also set strict limits on a facility's capacity. Simply put, our facilities are never overcrowded," the company said. The operator of Krome Detention Center told Human Rights Watch it could not comment publicly on the specifics of its engagement. CBS News Miami reached out to ICE for comment but has not received a response.
Al Jazeera
21-07-2025
- Health
- Al Jazeera
‘Less than human': Report details Trump immigration detention centre abuses
Detainees at three United States immigration detention centres have reported degrading conditions, including a delay in medical treatment that may be tied to two deaths, according to a human rights report. The investigation published on Monday detailed women held in male facilities, rampant overcrowding and potentially deadly indifference to medical needs at the three facilities in or near Miami, Florida: Krome North Service Processing Center, Broward Transitional Center and the Federal Detention Center. Its authors said the abuses underscore another aspect of the human toll of President Donald Trump's deportation campaign, which has forced many facilities to operate beyond their capacity. In turn, the administration has sought a mad-dash scale-up in deportation infrastructure with new facilities, including the Florida state-erected 'Alligator Alcatraz', spiking their own concerns and condemnation. In a statement accompanying the 92-page report's release, Belkis Wille, the associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, which authored the report with Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South, warned that 'people in immigration detention are being treated as less than human.' 'These are not isolated incidents, but rather the result of a fundamentally broken detention system that is rife with serious abuses,' Wille said. Denial of medical care The report, which relied on current and former inmate testimony, information from family members, lawyers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency data, detailed a lax approach to medical care at the three facilities, which included denial of treatment and medication. One detainee recounted guards in late April ignoring cries for help as 44-year-old Marie Ange Blaise, a Haitian national, suffered what would prove to be a deadly medical emergency at the Broward Transitional Center. 'We started yelling for help, but the guards ignored us,' the detainee recounted, according to the report. By the time a rescue team came more than half an hour later, 'she was not moving.' The detainee who detailed the death said she was also punished for seeking mental health treatment, adding people were regularly put in solitary confinement for requesting such help. In another instance, the wife of Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man, said her husband's requests in February to see a doctor were repeatedly delayed as he experienced fever, chest pain and other symptoms while in detention at Krome. When he did see a doctor, he was diagnosed with elevated blood pressure, which was not directly treated, according to his wife. When Chernyak later started vomiting, drooling and defecating on himself, a cellmate recounted that guards took 15 to 20 minutes to respond. When they did, they accused Chernyak of taking illicit synthetic drugs, a claim the cellmate, identified only as Carlos, denied. Chernyak was removed on a stretcher, declared brain dead and pronounced dead two days later. Overcrowding and degrading behaviour Across the three facilities, the report detailed rampant overcrowding with detainees at Krome saying they were held in cells that at times exceeded twice their capacity. The crowding led to shortages in bedding, soap and other sanitation products, and some detainees were forced to sleep on the floor. Women were also processed at Krome despite it being a male-only facility. Women held at the centre told the investigators that they were denied showers and forced to use open toilets potentially visible to the male population. 'If the men stood on a chair, they could see right into our room and the toilet,' recounted a woman from Argentina. 'We begged to be allowed to shower, but they said it wasn't possible because it was a male-only facility.' Other alleged abuses include excessive use of force, inadequate access to food, prolonged shackling and exposure to extreme heat and cold. Detainees reported 30 to 40 people crowded into a room meant for six and being forced to use a bucket as a toilet. Harpinder Chauhan, a British entrepreneur who spent months bouncing between facilities after being detained by ICE at a regular immigration appointment in February, recounted one response from detention centre authorities. 'They told us if we kept asking for a toilet that flushed, they would create a problem we wouldn't like,' he said. Violations of international, domestic law All told, the report's authors said the allegations amount to violations of both international law and federal US policies on immigration detention. They said the conditions showed the fallout of Trump's effort to enact mass deportations – a drive itself predicated on the evidenceless claim that immigrant criminality is rampant in the US – despite lacking the proper resources. The number of people held in immigration detention, who are typically undergoing their right to challenge their deportations, has risen steadily since Trump took office on January 20, jumping from 39,238 on January 26 to 56,816 on July 13, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration is seeking to quickly scale up its detention capacity from 40,000 to 100,000 beds by year end, largely by prioritising quick-build tent facilities on military bases and ICE properties. The construction drive comes after Trump signed a tax and spending bill that surges an unprecedented $45bn to new detention centres. Last week, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration would also seek to boost cooperation with states like Florida to open more detention facilities like 'Alligator Alcatraz', whose construction is initially funded not by the federal government but by state taxpayers.
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- The Guardian
Migrants at Ice jail in Miami made to kneel to eat ‘like dogs', report alleges
Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates 'like dogs', according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities. The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) operated jails in the state since January, chronicled by advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees. Dozens of men had been packed into a holding cell for hours, the report said, and denied lunch until about 7pm. They remained shackled with the food on chairs in front of them. 'We had to eat like animals,' one detainee named Pedro said. Degrading treatment by guards is commonplace in all three jails, the groups say. At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were made to use toilets in full view of men being held there, and were denied access to gender-appropriate care, showers, or adequate food. The jail was so far beyond capacity, some transferring detainees reported, that they were held for more than 24 hours in a bus in the parking lot. Men and women were confined together, and unshackled only when they needed to use the single toilet, which quickly became clogged. 'The bus became disgusting. It was the type of toilet in which normally people only urinate but because we were on the bus for so long, and we were not permitted to leave it, others defecated in the toilet,' one man said. 'Because of this, the whole bus smelled strongly of feces.' When the group was finally admitted into the facility, they said, many spent up to 12 days crammed into a frigid intake room they christened la hierela - the ice box - with no bedding or warm clothing, sleeping instead on the cold concrete floor. There was so little space at Krome, and so many detainees, the report says, that every available room was used to hold new arrivals. 'By the time I left, almost all the visitation rooms were full. A few were so full men couldn't even sit, all had to stand,' Andrea, a female detainee, said. At the third facility, the Broward transitional center in Pompano Beach, where a 44-year-old Haitian woman, Marie Ange Blaise, died in April, detainees said they were routinely denied adequate medical or psychological care. Some suffered delayed treatment for injuries and chronic conditions, and dismissive or hostile responses from staff, the report said. In one alleged incident in April at the downtown Miami jail, staff turned off a surveillance camera and a 'disturbance control team' brutalized detainees who were protesting a lack of medical attention to one of their number who was coughing up blood. One detainee suffered a broken finger. All three facilities were severely overcrowded, the former detainees said, a contributory factor in Florida's decision to quickly build the controversial 'Alligator Alcatraz' jail in the Everglades intended to eventually hold up to 5,000 undocumented migrants awaiting deportation. Immigration detention numbers nationally were at an average of 56,400 per day in mid-June, with almost 72% having no criminal history, according to the report. The daily average during the whole of 2024 was 37,500, HRW said. The groups say that the documented abuses reflect inhumane conditions inside federal immigration facilities that have worsened significantly since Trump's January inauguration and subsequent push to ramp up detentions and deportations. 'The anti-immigrant escalation and enforcement tactics under the Trump administration are terrorizing communities and ripping families apart, which is especially cruel in the state of Florida, which thrives because of its immigrant communities,' said Katie Blankenship, immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South. 'The rapid, chaotic, and cruel approach to arresting and locking people up is literally deadly and causing a human rights crisis that will plague this state and the entire country for years to come.' The Guardian has contacted Ice for comment.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Two more Ice deaths put US on track for one of deadliest years in immigration detention
The Trump administration is on track to oversee one of the deadliest years for immigrant detention as of late after the recent deaths of two men – one from Cuba and another from Canada – while in federal custody. A 75-year-old Cuban man died last week while being held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), CBS News reported, citing a notification sent to Congress. This would mark the 13th death in its facilities during the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October. At least two of those have been classified as suicides. In comparison, Ice reported 12 deaths in the fiscal year 2024. Advocates and immigration attorneys say deteriorating conditions inside an already strained detention system are contributing to the rise in deaths, which has unfolded as the administration aggressively ramps up efforts to deport millions of migrants. Under the past three administrations, the worst year saw 12 deaths in Ice custody. If the current pace continues, the total for 2025 could double those numbers. Critics say the system is collapsing under the pressure of Ice's target of detaining about 3,000 people each day. As of mid-June, more than 56,000 migrants were being held – that is 140% of the agency's stated capacity. 'These are the worst conditions I have seen in my 20-year career,' Paul Chavez, litigation and advocacy director at Americans for Immigrant Justice, told the New York Times. 'Conditions were never great, but this is horrendous.' Among the recent fatalities are 49-year-old Johnny Noviello, a Canadian who was found unresponsive on 23 June at a detention facility in Miami. Another is Jesus Molina-Veya, 45, who died on 7 June while in Ice custody in Atlanta. Molina-Veya, from Mexico, was found unconscious with a ligature around his neck, according to officials. His death remains under investigation. In response to Noviello's death, the Canadian government has pressed US authorities for more information. 'The government of Canada was notified of the death of a Canadian citizen while in custody in the United States. Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from US officials. I offer my sincere condolences to the family,' Anita Anand, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, wrote on X. Despite the high death toll, immigration enforcement remains a top funding priority for the Trump administration. Border and immigration enforcement have been making up two-thirds of federal law enforcement spending. Under Trump's proposed 'big, beautiful bill', the US would commit $350bn to national security, including for the president's mass deportation agenda.
