MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A woman is raising concerns about what she calls inhumane treatment of her undocumented fiancé, who is now being held at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami after being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month.
“He did what he was supposed to do — did it right and they picked him up,” the woman said when speaking to Local 10’s Liane Morejon. She asked not to be identified, fearing her comments could impact her fiancé’s ongoing immigration case.
The woman said her husband-to-be was detained about three weeks ago after checking in with immigration officials. He had been wearing an ankle monitor and was initially taken to the Krome Detention Center in west Miami-Dade.
“They have hundreds of people under two tents,” she said of the conditions at Krome.
Two weeks later, she says her fiancé was transferred to the federal facility downtown — one of several Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities now housing ICE detainees under a controversial arrangement between federal agencies.
“The conditions of the federal building (are) insane,” she said, citing limited access to clean clothing, little to no time outside of his cell, and what she described as near-total isolation from legal counsel.
“They’re in the cell 22 hours a day,” she said. “They get out 6 to 8 a.m. so they can’t even have contact with their attorney because of the hours.”
ICE declined to confirm how many detainees are currently being held at the Miami detention center, citing safety and security reasons.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigration advocacy groups have raised alarms about detainees being moved into Bureau of Prisons facilities.
In a letter sent to several federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, the groups warned of “troubling systemic failures” and urged officials to provide detainees with proper access to legal documents, legal mail and attorneys.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has said his office is working to find solutions to existing problems in the system that include “additional space for incarceration.”
The woman, meanwhile, says she’s speaking out not just for her fiancé, but for others who may be caught in a similar situation.
“Where’s the humanity?” she said.