Shocking Abuse Uncovered: Migrants at Miami ICE Jails Forced to Eat on Their Knees 'Like Dogs'
Miami, FL — A harrowing new investigation into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in Florida has uncovered appalling human rights violations, including reports of migrants being shackled with their hands behind their backs and forced to kneel and eat off Styrofoam plates “like dogs.”
The incident, which allegedly took place at the federal detention center in downtown Miami, is just one of many abuses documented by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South in a report released Monday. The findings are based on interviews with dozens of former detainees held across three ICE-run jails in South Florida.
According to the report, dozens of male detainees were packed into a holding cell for hours without food, only receiving a meal at around 7 p.m.—while still in full restraints. The food was placed on chairs in front of them, and with their hands tied behind their backs, they had no choice but to kneel to eat.
“We had to eat like animals,” said Pedro, one of the detainees quoted in the report.
Inhumane and Degrading Treatment
The report outlines systemic mistreatment across all three facilities. At the Krome North Service Processing Center in West Miami, women were reportedly forced to use restrooms in full view of male detainees and were denied access to gender-appropriate hygiene, showers, and food.
Conditions became so overcrowded that some migrants were left waiting inside buses parked outside for more than 24 hours. In one shocking account, a detainee described how men and women were only unshackled to use a single toilet—which quickly overflowed.
“The bus became disgusting… the entire bus smelled strongly of feces,” one migrant recounted.
Once admitted into the facility, many detainees were held for up to 12 days in a freezing cold intake room, nicknamed “la hielera”—Spanish for “the icebox.” With no bedding or warm clothing, they slept on concrete floors, exposed to near-freezing temperatures.
Overcrowding, Neglect, and Deaths
Krome’s overcrowding reached such extremes that visitation rooms were turned into makeshift holding areas, often so packed that detainees had to stand due to lack of space.
At the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, conditions were no better. Detainees reported widespread medical neglect, delayed treatment for chronic illnesses, and staff indifference toward psychological health. In April, 44-year-old Haitian detainee Marie Ange Blaise died at the facility under circumstances now under investigation.
In another incident that same month, staff at the downtown Miami jail allegedly turned off a surveillance camera while a “disturbance control team” violently suppressed a protest over the medical condition of a fellow detainee who was coughing up blood. One detainee sustained a broken finger during the assault.
ICE Expansion and a State in Crisis
These alarming revelations come amid Florida’s plans to expand its detention infrastructure with the construction of a massive new facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, capable of housing up to 5,000 undocumented migrants awaiting deportation.
National ICE detention numbers have surged under the Trump administration’s intensified crackdown. By mid-June 2025, the average daily population in immigration detention had reached 56,400—up dramatically from 37,500 in 2024. Alarmingly, nearly 72% of those currently detained have no criminal record.
Human rights groups say the situation has escalated rapidly since former President Donald Trump returned to office in January, unleashing a new wave of enforcement measures that disproportionately impact Florida’s immigrant population.
“The anti-immigrant escalation and enforcement tactics under the Trump administration are terrorizing communities and ripping families apart,” said Katie Blankenship, immigration attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South. “This chaotic and cruel approach is not only deadly—it’s creating a human rights crisis that will haunt this state and the nation for years to come.”