Many South Florida immigrants fear President Donald Trump’s deportation policy. One reason: the facilities where they will likely be detained have been buffeted by decades of documented violence, sexual abuse and human rights violations.
Trump promised “millions and millions” of deportations during his inauguration speech.
Though the reality of the task — and numerous legal challenges — have made those numbers seem perhaps overly ambitious, Trump’s goals have raised two important questions:
Where will they be held? And under what conditions?
The answer to question one is clear. There are four places in South Florida and the Caribbean where tens of thousands of immigrants have been held since the Mariel boatlift in 1980.
The first of these is the Krome detention center, which opened during Mariel. Reports suggest the facility is massively overcrowded at triple its capacity of about 500.
Krome’s leaders have also hidden dangerous conditions from a U.S. congressional delegation and mistreated female detainees. Two men have died there this year. And that’s just the start.
Then there's the Broward Transitional Center (BTC) in Pompano Beach, which, back in 2002, was promoted as a new “model” for civil detention. But it has faced complaints of rape, shackling medical patients, and suicide attempts. One person has died there this year and an investigation is underway.
The Glades County Detention Center was built in 2007 west of Lake Okeechobee. It stopped taking in migrants in 2022 due to claims of everything “from pervasive sexual and medical misconduct to unlawful overuse of toxic chemicals,” according to the ACLU, but then reopened last month.
Finally, there is Guantanamo Bay, where around 500 immigrants have been sent since Feb. 4. Its history of torture and abuse of foreign combatants is legendary. And costs so far have been stratospheric.
“If these were commercial facilities for animals,” said Denise Noonan Slavin, the senior adviser to Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ), an advocacy group. “They would shut them down for health and sanitation violations.”
What follows are descriptions of these places’ long and startling history of alleged abuse.
Krome
The Krome detention center was transformed from a Cold War base after 125,000 Cubans and 15,000 Haitians headed for South Florida’s shores.
Overcrowding has been chronic there since immigration authorities tried to deceive congressional fact-finders back in 1995 by quickly releasing 58 detainees — some without medical clearance or a criminal history check to mask that the facility was at almost double its capacity of 226.
A January 1996 grievance letter by 157 detainees described conditions this way: “There are no urinals (for men) as the building that houses us was built to accommodate approximately 130 women, and now holds over 300 men, some of which, have to sleep in hallways, walkways and entrance ways, on cots (not beds).”
An October 2000 report by a nonprofit alleged women were coerced into sexual acts. That August, INS guard Lemar Smith was indicted on four counts of sexually assaulting a Mexican transsexual woman.
“He put his hand on my neck,” recounted the inmate. “Held me against the wall and raped me… I’m never going to forget that.”
READ MORE: Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz finds 'incredibly disturbing' conditions at Krome
Smith was sentenced to eight months in prison in 2001. Nine Krome officers were reassigned before all 90 or so women who remained were moved to a county jail.
Though the place was renovated, two men have died inside Krome since Trump took office this year: Genry Ruiz-Guillen, 29, and Maksym Chernyak, 44.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Department declared both died of “natural” causes, but the Miami Herald reported that experts are concerned with how their cases were handled.
Ruiz-Guillen, who is from Honduras, perished on Jan. 23. Experts say his official cause of death — “complications of schizoaffective disorder” — is inadequate, as that generally does not result in someone passing away.
Meanwhile, staff reportedly took 45 minutes to call 9-1-1 after Chernyak, a Ukrainian, began experiencing “seizure-like activity.” He suffered irreparable brain damage and died on Feb. 20.
In March, USA Today reported the experiences of four women held at the facility. The newspaper said they were allegedly chained on a bus and told by guards to urinate or defecate on the floor. At Krome, they were placed in crowded holding cells and barely had access to food or water.
In April, Americans for Immigrant Justice submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council alleging “torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detained persons” including shackling, disgusting sanitary conditions and isolation. The group cited a detainee who said they “had to take turns sleeping, with some men lying down and some standing, because there wasn’t enough room for us to all lie down.”
U.S Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat from Miami, toured the Krome Detention Center in late April and said that a “tent city” was under construction.
“It’s going to get worse,” she said. “Every time this facility gets crowded, in order to stay in compliance, they’re going to have to build another one.”
In late May, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, made a surprise visit to Krome and told reporters afterwards that what she saw there was “incredibly disturbing.”
“There's no one in your family that you would ever want to be here… because you wouldn't want anyone that you care about to be in the conditions that these people are being held in,” she said.
Broward
The Broward Transitional Center (BTC) has fewer complaints than South Florida’s other facilities, but they are nevertheless horrifying. In 2012, a man who needed treatment after being raped was sent to the hospital shackled in a van. Around the same time, women complained of guards’ poor response to potentially suicidal residents.
The center opened in 2002 with 530 beds and expanded in 2009 to 700. After Krome made national headlines, Broward was promoted as the new “model” for detention. The GEO Group, a private prison corporation, is paid more than $20 million annually to run it, according to a 2013 report from Americans for Immigrant Justice,
Though it is generally for immigrants who have not committed crimes, dozens of problems have been reported in the last 15 years. In fact, three detainees attempted suicide there in 2011, according to a 2012 federal inspection.
A female detainee told Americans for Immigrant Justice of another woman in 2011 who was “crying all the time and refusing to eat because she had been separated from her husband.” The woman said that she and a group of detainees sent a letter of concern to officials out of fear that she was also suicidal.
An immigration officer allegedly responded by saying they “had broken the rules by sending a group letter.”
“They make me feel like I am not a person, said the detainee. “And they treat us like we are animals.”
AIJ also reported that a father named Enrique was raped inside a facility bathroom in summer 2012. He needed medical attention, but the staff didn’t call an ambulance. Instead, he was “shackled, stuffed into a van.”
“They put handcuffs on me and cuffed my feet and brought me to the hospital,” said Enrique. “It was excruciating.”
READ MORE: South Florida lawmakers condemn Trump administration for 'inhumane' conditions at ICE facility
According to a 2019 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, poor dental care has caused numerous immigrants severe pain in Broward. One of them, Antonio R, “described having such a severe infection in his molar that not only did he have to skip meals, but his vision was impaired.” After begging for medical help, “he was given ibuprofen and sent back to his pod,” the report said.
It also noted that a gay detainee endured “relentless anti-gay harassment” that led him to attempt suicide.
“I don’t know what’s worse, this or death,” he said.
Haitian detainee Marie Ange Blaise, 44, died in BTC on April 25. ICE hasn’t released much information, but the Miami Herald reported that another unnamed detainee said Blaise had complained about chest pains and was told to take some pills and lie down.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Miramar, who toured the facility in early May with Congresswoman Wilson, said in a statement that she was "disappointed with what I saw and what I heard."
“I failed to see any evidence that there were proper procedures in place and that adequate health care was provided," she said. "One single doctor to care for hundreds of detainees — with some being forced to sleep on the floor — is inhumane.”
Glades
South Florida’s most controversial facility is the Glades County Detention Center, located west of Lake Okeechobee. It was opened in 2007 and temporarily halted immigrant operations in 2022 following complaints from Congress and advocacy groups. In April, the federal government released a statement that the facility would begin housing migrants again.
The center was built for 440 beds, but the statement said up to 500 additional beds would be allocated.
Before the 2022 closure, some detainees were kept in their cells for about 23 hours a day — one was placed in a straitjacket for nearly a day. There were also claims of medical malpractice.
There were also concerns about medical neglect.
In 2019, detainee Karamjit Singh claimed that after telling an officer he was depressed, he was put on suicide watch, stripped naked, and placed in a Velcro straitjacket for 17 to 20 hours, according to Miami New Times.
“It's like a modern-day concentration camp,” he said. “I’m experiencing psychological torture.”
These complaints were exacerbated when COVID-19 spread through the facility. Mexican detainee Onoval Perez-Montufar died inside Glades after “he made it known he had medical conditions qualifying him for release… but ICE refused to release him.”
A 19-page complaint filed by seven female detainees in August 2021 alleged that guards had watched them shower, while the facility’s sole psychiatrist abused his position to sexually harass women.
A month later, Scientific American reported immigration officers were using a toxic chemical spray at levels considered illegal by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Haitian detainee Jean Cleophat, who suffered from asthma, said the spray harmed him.
“I’ll be waking up sweating,” said Cleophat. “I can’t breathe. I feel dizzy.”
In February 2022, 17 Congressmen signed a letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging Glades’ closure. In late March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred all detainees out.
After the Trump Administration announced last month that it would reopen to immigrants, attorney Katie Blankenship told the Miami Herald: “ICE knows that Glades is unsafe for people. This is a level of inhumane treatment that the government has to be held accountable for.”
Guantanamo
The U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay is a bellwether for the diminishing ambitions of the Trump administration to round up and deport immigrants.
A year ago, the president was threatening to deport 15 to 20 million undocumented immigrants, now numbers seem far smaller. In Guantanamo, the president suggested he would send 30,000 immigrants, but three months later, some immigration officials said the number would be far smaller.
In the operation’s first month, mostly in February, the federal government spent $40 million, the New York Times reported.
But so far, the base has held 497 migrants. Scores of tents were put up to house the many migrants that were expected, but the Times reported that none have been occupied. Now some are being taken down. No one has stayed in them. Total cost for just that piece: $3 million.
In early May, the government said the camp housed 32 migrants awaiting deportation and had about 725 staff members including Army and Marine forces as well as 100 people employed by ICE as security officers or contractors. “That is more than 22 uniformed military and ICE workers for each migrant,” the Times reported.
Guantanamo is also facing legal backlash. A federal court is investigating two military flights that may have sent Venezuelans from Guantanamo to El Salvador in defiance of a court order. And an April 26 court filing by two former Nicaraguan detainees alleges “extreme fear and intimidation” that obstruct due process. The lawsuit says attorneys are not allowed physical meetings with clients. Instead, they are chained during legal calls, which are on speaker with an officer nearby.
ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt concludes that sending immigrants to Guantanamo “is not only illegal and unprecedented but illogical given the additional cost and logistical complications.”
Then he added: “Ultimately this is about theatrics.”
The story was originally published by Caplin News, a publication of FIU's Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media, as part of an editorial content partnership with the WLRN newsroom.
