Calls to 911 from the Broward Transitional Center, an ICE detention facility in Pompano Beach, are on pace to double from last year, according to an analysis of emergency-call data by The Tributary, a trend that some lawmakers, immigration-rights groups and attorneys attribute to a system that is overwhelmed and operating with little oversight.
From January through June, at least 88 calls have been made to 911 dispatchers from within BTC, according to records from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, exactly twice the number of calls made during the same six months last year.
And the data indicate those calls are about more urgent issues: More than 40 percent of the calls this year were for medical emergencies, including fainting, seizures and chest pains. Only 20 percent of the 44 emergency calls made from January through June last year concerned medical emergencies.
READ MORE: ICE arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions or charges surge in Florida
Transcripts were only available for a small portion of the 88 calls from within the detention center this year because the department routinely deletes 911 call audio, according to sheriff’s office officials. But even the limited available details suggest medical workers at BTC are stretched.
“We put oxygen. We did everything we could but we’re not well equipped,” one BTC official told a 911 dispatcher during a call this summer. “We need more assistance.”
In another call about a seizure, a woman from BTC told the dispatcher that there was no doctor on site. “We have nurses here, yes. No doctor …,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat, told The Tributary in a statement that the increase in calls was unsurprising.
“ICE keeps removing oversight, terrorizing immigrants, and failing to provide basic support for ICE detention facilities—just look at the Broward Transitional Center,” Wilson said. “When I visited, the place was completely understaffed and operating with just one nurse for every 500 detainees. That’s outrageous.”
Increase in calls
The calls report detainees fainting in the laundry room, having a seizure in the cafeteria and complaining of intense abdominal pain. One case reported a potential miscarriage or obstetric emergency.
The 911 data align with observations documented by attorneys and advocacy groups about conditions at BTC and other such facilities nationwide.
“We’re seeing people not being taken to see a doctor,” said Nery Lopez, Florida-based senior organizer for the Detention Watch Network. “If they have medicine, they’re not given access to their medicines. Even people who are pregnant, they’re not being given their rights to medical care and that’s very honestly so inhumane.”
GEO Group, the private prison company that runs BTC, did not respond to questions about the number of medical staff and criticisms of the medical care.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the conditions in the detention center.
Lack of oversight
The increase in emergency calls comes as more immigrants are being swept up in Trump’s immigration crackdown and the administration has slashed funding for ICE detention oversight.
“I raised the alarm months ago, but nothing has changed,” Rep. Wilson told The Tributary. “Why? Because this administration dismantled the very offices meant to uphold the humanity and dignity of detainees.”
Nationwide, the immigrant detention population reached a peak of 59,000 in June, exceeding the 41,500 bed capacity by 140 percent.
BTC, however, has only seen small fluctuations in its population since October 2024, with the daily population ranging between 630 and 650 people, according to Transitional Records Access Clearinghouse. This is less than a 10 percent increase in its population for most of 2024.
However, lawyers and advocates have said official ICE statistics have become unreliable in recent months. Clients often don’t show up in the system for days or weeks
When visiting a client at BTC recently, lawyer Mich González overheard guards talking about overcrowding. Maria Bilbao, the campaigns coordinator for American Friends Service Committee, who has recently visited the Broward facility, said one detainee told her that he witnessed a constant flow of people coming into the facility.
The Trump administration has said its immigration crackdown is targeting criminals, but 80 percent of detainees at BTC have no criminal record or pending charges, according to Human Rights Watch.
Besides an overall population increase, lawyers, lawmakers and advocates point to a lack of medical staff and less discretion to release medically vulnerable people as possible reasons for the increase in emergency calls.
“I failed to see any evidence that there were proper procedures in place and that adequate health care was provided,” Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL-20) said in a news release after a visit in May. “One single doctor to care for hundreds of detainees — with some being forced to sleep on the floor — is inhumane.”
A change in ICE detention policy could also be contributing to the increase in emergency calls. A July memo instructs ICE to detain all immigrants while their court cases are pending, ending a long-standing practice of using agency discretion to release medically vulnerable people who do not pose a threat to public safety.
“That means there are sicker, more vulnerable people who are being held in immigration detention,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU National Prison Project.
Documented Pattern
A Human Rights Watch report published this month alleged a pattern of denied or delayed medical care at BTC, supported by stories shared by detainees and their family members.
Harpinder Chauhan, a 56-year-old British immigrant with diabetes, pancreatitis and heart disease, said a doctor denied him his medication when he arrived at BTC in April.
“He just wanted to lecture me on what I had done wrong in my life to get these conditions,” Chauhan told HRW.
Chauhan then collapsed in the cafeteria on April 20 and was transferred to the hospital.
His son Aaron heard of his father’s hospitalization through the relative of his cellmate, but BTC would not provide any information for privacy reasons.
Another man from Nicaragua was hospitalized while his wife was left in the dark.
“The last time I spoke to him, he said that he was going to go on a hunger strike and that he wanted to die,” his wife told HRW. “I don’t know if he’s alive, if he’s dead, if they’re hurting him.”
A 32-year-old Honduran asylum seeker who went by the pseudonym Rosa reported gaining 40 pounds and being diagnosed with prediabetes and fatty liver disease after spending nearly six months in BTC. Her time in BTC worsened her anxiety and PTSD symptoms, according to González, her attorney.
“It definitely was extremely hard on her, and her nerves were so bad,” González said. “She is just a kind, calm and peaceful person, and she has no criminal history whatsoever.”
In custody death
Days after Chauhan, the 56-year old British immigrant collapsed, 44-year-old Haitian immigrant Marie Ange Blaise complained of chest pains to her cell mates and her son, according to an investigation by the Broward County Office of the Medical Examiner.
After a medical screening in February, she was prescribed medication for high-blood pressure, which she refused to take, according to the ICE death report. However, she did take her medication the day of her death, according to the medical examiner’s report.
Rosa told HRW that she saw Blaise begging for help, but guards did not immediately pay attention to her.
Staff reported a medical emergency at Blaise’s dorm at 8:35 p.m on April 25, according to ICE records. Medical workers arrived five minutes later and found Blaise unresponsive and with no clear pulse. They performed CPR until EMS personnel arrived at 8:51 p.m.
The 911 call log shows a call at 8:45 on April 25 to report a cardiac/respiratory arrest. Seconds later, another call was made about a death. Blaise was pronounced dead at 9:03, according to the investigation from the Broward County Office of the Medical Examiner.
Advocates worry that systematic problems with access to medical care will only lead to more deaths.
“By all accounts, it seems to be getting worse,” said Cho of the ACLU.
“If you look at the number of deaths that have happened this year alone, a striking number of those deaths in immigration detention have happened in Florida, which is a clear indication that something very serious is going wrong.”
This story was originally published by The Tributary, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit newsroom producing government accountability and investigative journalism.
