Photographs taken by an anonymous informant and published this week by Democratic legislators from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reveal conditions described as "horrible" inside the ICE administrative office in Miramar, Florida.
The images show detainees sleeping on the floor of an unventilated garage.
Portable toilets overflowing with waste.
People brushing their teeth with water from a hose outside.
The images were released by representatives Robert Garcia (California), Bennie Thompson (Mississippi), and Maxwell Frost (Florida), who also announced an investigation into a second ICE facility in Orlando.
An office turned into an improvised detention center
The Miramar center was designed for routine immigration appointments, not for extended detention.
However, under the mass deportation agenda of the Trump administration, it became a critical point of overcrowding.
According to the Oversight Committee, it came to house 342 people despite having a maximum capacity of 50, more than six times its limit.
Thomas Kennedy, spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, was emphatic in describing the situation to NBC Miami: “They are detaining people illegally. For more than the 12 hours that the law permits. This is not a detention center; these are ICE administrative offices being used as a detention center.”
Kennedy expanded the description: “More than 100 people in these rooms, and what we see there at least is the garage, but they have office rooms where dozens of people are crammed together without a shower, without a bathroom, sleeping on the floor, with inadequate food, a situation of mistreatment.”
What the photographs reveal
Four portable toilets located outside served more than 100 detainees. According to the report, they had not been cleaned and were covered in human waste both inside and out, with feces overflowing onto the ground.
Other images show bags of garbage piled up near the tables where the detainees ate, and individuals brushing their teeth outdoors with water from a hose connected to a barrel.
The complainants described that the detainees— including the elderly, those with chronic illnesses, and families—remain chained with handcuffs, shackles, and chains around the waist for up to 16 hours a day, with no adequate access to medical care or legal assistance.
A man claimed he had been held without receiving his HIV medication.
A testimony collected by Univision summarized the situation: "It's terrible. They are treating people like cattle... Hundreds of people lying on the floor in a garage."
Congress members demand answers and denounce a cover-up
Garcia, Thompson, and Frost sent a letter to the acting director of ICE, David J. Venturella, and to the DHS Inspector General, Joseph V. Cuffari, setting a deadline of October 5, 2026, to preserve and deliver records.
In the letter, they stated that "ICE keeps individuals detained for days or weeks under abusive conditions that endanger their lives, including overcrowded cells, prolonged chaining, inadequate access to medical care and hygiene, insufficient food, and limited or no legal access. ICE simultaneously attempts to cover up these horrific practices."
The report also revealed that the superiors at the facility had warned the agents that there would be consequences if they spoke out, and that the authorities in Miramar were instructed to stop calling 911 for non-emergency situations.
A crisis that has deep roots
The controversy surrounding Miramar is not new. In July, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz conducted a surprise inspection and found more than 150 people in four rooms designed to hold 56 each.
Testimonials from migrants reported detentions of up to 10 days at the site.
The September report comes after a series of revelations about other centers in Florida.
A week earlier, the Inspector General of the DHS published reports on the Krome Detention Center in Miami and on Alligator Alcatraz, in the Everglades—now closed—where an inspection documented that 79 detainees were confined in small outdoor metal cages measuring only 16 square feet.
Las condiciones en los centros de detención de ICE y otros temas migratorios siguen generando debate en Estados Unidos. Mantente informado en nuestra sección de
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