Krome Detention Center

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed on Tuesday that Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old Haitian woman, died in federal custody at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach.

An ICE spokesperson acknowledged the structure, after South Florida U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilsont said she saw a “tent city” at the Krome North Service Processing Center during her visit last week.

As President Donald Trump sought to make good on his campaign pledge of mass arrests and removals of migrants, Krome, the United States' oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse, saw its prisoner population recently swell to nearly three times its capacity of 600.

The Democratic congresswoman from Miami toured the Krome Detention Center on Thursday, telling reporters afterwards that federal immigration authorities were planning to erect a “tent city” to expand the number of detainees in a facility already overcrowded.

The little-known 2021 settlement was meant to shield some undocumented immigrants in county jails from being handed over to federal authorities if they were victims or witnesses of a crime. Getting the county to abide is more pressing now that the conditions at the Krome Detention Center are attracting widespread scrutiny — including from county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

The group found “degrading and inhumane treatment” that included “confining people in ‘holding’ cells that are overcapacity; people forced to sleep on a cold concrete floor “without any blankets or bedding under fluorescent lighting in unsanitary conditions, and detainees deprived the right to contact family members or attorneys to tell them their whereabouts.

Democratic U.S. Representatives have sent an angry letter to the Trump administration demanding restored oversight of the controversial Krome detention center for migrants.

UPDATE: A Gainesville police officer stopped Felipe Zapata Velásquez, 27, on March 28 driving near the UF football stadium and ticketed him because his sedan’s registration had expired in July 2024 and his driver’s license had expired in 2023, according to court records.

“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,” wrote U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson in her letter sent Monday to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

The amount of Haitians held in immigration detention skyrockets and the federal government starts holding them in federal prisons. Facing accusations of racism inside and outside the courts, the Reagan Administration decided to make a drastic policy shift: instead of treating Haitians like everyone else, it would now treat everyone else like Haitians.

National civil rights and immigration lawyers are calling on state and federal officials to mandate complete oversight of all adult immigration detention…

A recent series of stories by the Miami New Times found that police in Miami-Dade County have made tens of thousands of arrests for small amounts of…