Latest news with #FredericaWilson
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Sui Chung, of Americans for Immigrant Justice, talks about immigration enforcement in Florida
Immigration enforcement Jim talks to Sui Chung, the executive director of Americans for Immigrant Justice. The two discuss immigration enforcement here, specifically what is happening inside local detention centers like Krome. She has been documenting the conditions, and shares how they have deteriorated when it comes to overcrowding, as well as access to counsel, and medical care Guest: Sui Chung/Exec. Dir., Americans for Immigrant Justice About the issue The Krome Detention Center may soon house more immigrants under tent structures as overcrowding concerns grow, according to U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson. Family member describes overcrowding conditions Jessica Rodriguez said her husband, Josue Aguilar, 27, was transferred to Krome two weeks ago after being detained at a U.S. immigration services office. Aguilar told her the facility was overcrowded and detainees were lying on the floor. "He would tell me 20 people would be taken out and 50 would come in," she said. Rodriguez reached out to Rep. Wilson, a Democrat representing South Florida, who requested a tour of the immigration facility. Wilson also reviewed social media video reportedly taken by a detainee describing a lack of cleanliness.
New York Post
25-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Dem rep in pink cowboy hat calls for anti-GOP ‘uprising' over Florida ICE detention center conditions
A Democratic congresswoman urged Americans to hit the streets, flood Republican lawmakers with 'threatening' calls, and cause an 'uprising' over the conditions at a Florida ICE detention center — all while clad in a full pink suit and flower-adorned cowboy hat. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) toured Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Krome Detention Center in Miami on Thursday before holding a news conference on Instagram Live to tell reporters that federal authorities were planning to erect a 'tent city' to expand the number of detainees at the facility. 4 Florida Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson urged Americans to stage an 'uprising' over prisoner count at the ICE Krome Detention Center. X / @RepWilson Advertisement Wilson said she blamed the Laken Riley Act, the bill signed by President Trump in January that required the detention of illegal immigrants charged with certain crimes — including burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting — for the crackdown. 'The Laken Riley Act has caused an increase in detainees, and these are people who have… you could have been here forever,' Wilson said. She said illegal immigrants can be arrested for 'walking across the street, jaywalking, or shoplifting, they will detain you and bring you right here.' Advertisement 4 Wilson said federal immigration authorities removed people from the facility so she wouldn't see the overcrowding, without providing evidence. 'So I've been giving out the phone numbers to the House of Representatives and to the Senate,' she said. 'It's one number that number you call and you threaten it, and you say, 'This is wrong. This is not America. This is not what we stand for. We need a change.' You have to do that. It's going to take the people. We've done it,' Wilson said. 'We need the people. We needed an uprising where people are taking to the streets and the phones, and writing letters. That's what we need,' she told reporters. During her visit, the Dem lawmaker and fervent opponent of Trump said she expected to see criminals 'tattooed with gold teeth.' Advertisement Instead, Wilson, 82, said she was met with 'hardworking men' and not 'dangerous people.' 4 Wilson slammed the Laken Riley Act, a bill passed in January dedicated to slain jogger Laken Riley, who was beaten to death by illegal migrant José Antonio Ibarra. AP Wilson also alleged federal immigration authorities pulled a cover-up to hide the true conditions of the facility. 'I am positive that they took people out today, so I wouldn't see [the overcrowding],' Wilson said, without providing evidence. Advertisement 'It was like somebody went in there yesterday and put on a whole new coat of fresh paint… you could even smell the paint,' she added. 4 The Laken Riley Act, which Wilson said is unfairly causing overcrowding at the ICE detention center, requires US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants who are caught engaging in the crimes of 'burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.' She described the alleged 'tent city' being built at the detention center and slammed authorities for detaining those without criminal records. 'They [prison officials] did admit they are building a tent city,' she said. 'It's actually like a plexiglass or Styrofoam with big pipes of air conditioning coming in,' Wilson added. 'Most of the people are not criminals,' she said. The Laken Riley is named after nursing student Laken Riley, who was attacked, viciously strangled and beaten to death in February 2024 by illegal immigrant José Antonio Ibarra after he waylaid her as she jogged across the University of Georgia campus. The measure also enables state attorneys general to file lawsuits against the Homeland Security secretary if the government fails to enforce immigration laws, particularly in instances where 'the state or its residents experience harm, including financial harm in excess of $100.' A violent Tren de Aragua gangbanger, Ibarra had entered the country via the southern border into El Paso, Texas on Sept. 8, 2022, but was released due to insufficient detention space, according to immigration officials. Advertisement Prior to Riley's death, Ibarra had multiple run-ins with the law. In December 2023, an arrest warrant was issued for him over his failure to make a court appearance for a shoplifting case in Georgia. Previously, he had also been arrested for child endangerment after blitzing through the streets of Queens on a moped with his wife's child holding on for dear life, authorities told The Post. ICE later disclosed that Ibarra was not held after his arrest in the Empire State because he was released before officials could get a detainer.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Florida U.S. Rep. Wilson reports a ‘tent city' at Miami ICE detention center
South Florida U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson holds a press conference outside of the Krome North Service Processing Center on April 24, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Alvaro Perpuly with Wilson's office) South Florida's U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson said she saw a 'tent city' that could hold hundreds of people at the Miami immigration detention center on Thursday. Following her visit to the Krome North Service Processing Center, Wilson told reporters she saw a structure that officials at the center told her had been built in 14 days to house hundreds of detained immigrants. She referred to the structure as a tent city, but said the two-story building was made out of a harder material than cloth and that it had pipes for air conditioning. 'It's going to get worse, so every time this facility gets crowded, in order to stay in compliance, they're going to have to build another one, and it only takes 14 days,' Wilson said during a press conference following her visit to Krome. 'And so what they said to us was, as new detainees come in, they try to ship people out, but they can't keep up with the pace because of the Laken Riley Act.' The law Wilson mentioned requires immigration officials to detain immigrants arrested or charged with property crimes, among others. More people could soon enter Krome following the launch this week of a large-scale operation to detain approximately 800 people in Florida in cooperation between federal authorities and state police, according to the Miami Herald. Democrat Wilson, who vowed to keep visiting the detention center, said she hasn't seen overcrowding. However, she believes accounts of detainees, their families, and attorneys. 'This is not my first rodeo. I was down at Homestead when the children were there, and I've been to Krome before, and I've been to prisons all across Florida, especially female prisons,' Wilson said. 'So, I know what they do. They take them on a field trip, so you won't see who is actually in there, but they did admit that they are building a tent city.' Miami-Dade Mayor Levine Cava wasn't allowed to join the visit, Wilson said. Cava requested a tour of the detention center in an April 4 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Groups such as Americans for Immigrant Justice and the ACLU of Florida have called out conditions at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, citing accounts of overcrowding, people sleeping on floors, poor sanitation, and two detainee deaths this year. ICE did not respond to the Florida Phoenix's questions about the structure and whether any detainees had been moved out of the center on Thursday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Florida U.S. Rep. Wilson asks to visit Miami immigrant detention center
Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson is alarmed by conditions at Krome North Service Processing Center. (Photo via U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson wants to examine conditions at a Miami immigrant detention center, saying she's concerned about reports of people sleeping on concrete floors. Wilson, who represents part of Miami-Dade County, sent a letter Monday to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem requesting her help in arranging a congressional visit this month to the Krome North Service Processing Center. 'I have heard directly from immigration lawyers about the unacceptable conditions at Krome, including reports of individuals sleeping on the concrete floor, detainees being deprived of adequate food, and female detainees being held in a facility designated for men,' Wilson wrote in her letter. 'These alarming accounts illustrate the urgent need for me to exercise my duty of congressional oversight and intervention.' Wilson led a visit to Krome during President Donald Trump's first term in 2019. The request followed reports that Felipe Zapata Velásquez, an immigrant on a student visa enrolled at the University of Florida, was arrested on March 28 and taken to Krome for driving with an expired license and registration tag, according to The Independent Florida Alligator. Zapata Velásquez did not appear in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement online detainee locator system as of Monday afternoon. His mother told Colombian news outlet NTN24 that the student, who had been in the country for six years, had opted to self-deport after immigration officials said he would remain detained while making his case in court. Gainesville Democratic state Rep. Yvonne Hinson called the arrest saddening. 'Did registration and an expired license fall under the scope of arrest and detainment? After 3 Special Sessions on Immigration and cases such as this, immigrants are under attack now more than ever. We must speak up and not allow this to continue without voicing outrage,' she wrote in a press release. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Miami Herald
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Revoking Haitians' temporary immigration status is wrong and will hurt South Florida
Half-a-million Haitians temporarily living in the United States were plunged into uncertainty this week when the Trump administration announced it was rolling back their extension of Temporary Protected Status, meaning they could lose their work permits and be eligible for deportation as soon as August. It's unclear how many Haitian TPS holders live in Florida but the state has one of the largest populations of Haitian Americans in the country, about 500,000, with the majority in South Florida. This move will devastate our friends and neighbors, our co-workers and employees and harm our economy. Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson of Miami called sending Haitians home amid the country's turbulence a 'kiss of death.' Simmering apprehension is fast becoming a way of life here: The news about Haitians' TPS came about three weeks after the administration's gut-wrenching announcement that it would also revoke TPS for some 350,000 Venezuelans by April and another 257,000 by September. In other parts of the country, talk of TPS may seem abstract and far away, part of the national conversation about immigration and the need to crack down on those who are in the United States illegally. But in Miami, this hits home. Hard. We are community built, at least in recent times, by immigrants. Haitians and Venezuelans are an intrinsic part of our society. And people who are protected by TPS aren't here illegally; they have temporary legal status awarded to them by the U.S. government. Yes, it is a temporary status, but conferring that status should be based on logic, not political gamesmanship. This is, though, about politics. President Donald Trump came into office on the promise of deporting a million people. The TPS designation was extended by the Biden administration, so Trump is trying to erase it. In the process, he is undermining the word of the U.S. government. Our allies and enemies alike might well wonder: If we don't keep our word about TPS from administration to administration, what other promises will we go back on? For the government to simply change course when a new president takes office is unnecessarily cruel. These are human beings on TPS, not pawns. And they come from places in terrible turmoil. TPS is a federal program that allows migrants from certain countries to temporarily live and work legally in the U.S. while conditions in their home countries are unsafe. If there is any country in the world that should be eligible for the program, it's Haiti. Armed gangs control up to 90% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince, the capital. Sexual violence is commonplace, used as a way to control the population. The U.S. has spent more than $620 million to support a United Nations-authorized multinational security mission, which is struggling to impose order. There are shortages of food and an ongoing lack of medical supplies, with at least 70% of hospitals not functioning. There were at least four gang-related massacres last year, leading to the deaths of more than 5,600 Haitians. Schools have shuttered, doctors and nurses have been kidnapped for ransom, electricity goes on and off and a million people have fled their homes to escape violence, as William G. O'Neill, a U.N. expert on human rights in Haiti, wrote in an opinion article for the Herald asking the U.S. to reconsider this TPS decision. If that is not the case for TPS, what is? The same argument has been made — by this Editorial Board — regarding TPS for Venezuela, where conditions under leader Nicolas Maduro have worsened, if anything. The reasoning to allow Haitians to remain on TPS isn't solely based on being humane, though. What happens when half-a-million people are suddenly deported? It's hard to picture. Families would be divided. Businesses would suffer. Scaling back TPS, as many Republicans want, is one thing; yanking it out from under people who already have it is another thing entirely. Sending Haitians back to their devastated and dangerous country is, sadly, all about politics, not based on any threat to the U.S. or any reality in Haiti. This decision must be revisited. Click here to send the letter.
