A human rights crisis is unfolding, largely concealed behind concrete walls and razor wire in Florida, where I live and where the organization I work for made recent visits to immigration detention centers. Our findings can also give us an idea of what is happening at other facilities in our state, like “Alligator Alcatraz,” a new immigrant detention complex in the pristine Florida Everglades with plans to hold around 3,000 detainees, which media have not yet been allowed to access.
Beginning in late January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained large numbers of people in Florida, including many who had lived and worked in our communities for decades, in an effort to deport them. Many have been held at the Krome North Service Processing Center, operated by Akima Global Services, and two other facilities — the Broward Transitional Center and the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
When visiting these centers in May, Human Rights Watch and our partners Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South, found that at the peak of the overcrowding crisis at Krome in February and March, cells built for 66 people were crammed with as many as 155. Detainees told us that people were sleeping head-to-foot on thin mats or cots, while others were held in cramped processing rooms for over two weeks — with only one toilet that was out in the open. Some were held for days crammed into small client-attorney visitation rooms because the processing cells were full. Other detainees were shackled for long periods on buses, with no food, water or access to functioning toilets.
Overcrowding has given rise to many other abuses and indignities at Krome. For a few weeks, detainees told us that recreation time was offered only once every few days and, in a few instances, only once a week for 30 minutes. There were no hot breakfasts, meal portions were cut in half, and detainees were forced to eat their meals in their bunks instead of the canteen because the facility was over capacity.
Many fell sick but, per Krome’s rules, only five detainees per day were allowed to request to see a nurse; by late May even these requests were sometimes suspended.
My organization spoke with cellmates and relatives of two individuals — one Ukrainian, one Haitian — who died after being denied repeated requests for medical attention. One HIV-positive man vomited blood after a particularly traumatizing transfer from Krome to FDC and was not given his lifesaving daily medication. Another man with undetectable HIV was unable to access his medication for days.
We should all be asking our elected officials why human beings are being treated this way. While instilling fear by propagating cruelty may be a de facto policy to deter others from immigrating to the U.S., demeaning people in this way demeans us all. It does not represent the values that most of us want to live by and be known for — let alone pay for.
The overcrowding we found in Florida may have been exacerbated by Florida’s rapid expansion of immigration enforcement since January 20, 2025. That expansion includes 287(g) agreements, which are federal partnerships that deputize local law enforcement to carry out ICE functions. Florida’s cooperation with ICE far exceeds that of any other state. Florida law enforcement agencies and other entities, such as schools, make up 43% of all 287(g) agreements signed with ICE, nationwide. Six states in the U.S. have made it illegal for local authorities to sign such agreements.
ICE’s methods of rounding up and detaining immigrants has incited terror among family members of detained individuals who are afraid to contact law enforcement even if they are victims or witnesses to a crime. This erosion of trust in law enforcement harms public safety and puts us all at risk. One woman, whose Honduran partner was detained, said she was scared to report the theft of her truck. She said, “I wouldn’t be able to go to the police even if I was assaulted — no matter how serious — because I’d get arrested and risk deportation.”
There are many things that both Florida specifically and the U.S. more broadly should change about how immigrants are treated. Perhaps the most tangible thing our local elected officials can do is decide not to sign 287(g) agreements with the federal government and instead direct tax dollars to build trust and social cohesion in our communities, humanely dealing with undocumented immigrants. And there’s another step authorities can and should take here and nationwide: We should end the use of detention as the default approach instead of what it should be — a measure of last resort.
