SUNRISE, Fla. — Claudia Carolina Rodriguez Caglianone, who has been living in South Florida since 2017, said she and other U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees were treated like animals.

For eight days, Rodriguez Caglianone, 28, said she witnessed how people were forced to sleep on a dirty floor in “deplorable” conditions at the ICE-Enforcement Removal Operations Center in Miramar.

“I think they only cleaned the room twice. They didn’t clean the toilets. Every time we asked for water, they would say, ‘Drink water from the sink,’” Rodriguez Caglianone said on Tuesday, while standing with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz at her government office in Sunrise.

Rodriguez Caglianone said she and others received expired food with mold in Miramar, where she felt like she was treated like an “animal in a zoo,” as 47 women were held in an unhygienic room.

Wasserman Schultz said the ICE-ERO Center in Miramar is a “check-in facility,” so ICE is supposed to “transition” detainees within 12 hours, and has “a waiver” to hold detainees for up to 72 hours.

“There was an elderly lady, I remember she had two problems with her knees, plus diabetes. Their medications were not made easily available to them,” Rodriguez Caglianone said.

After she was transferred to the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Rodriguez Caglianone said she and other detainees were finally able to take a shower.

“They still treated us like criminals,” said Rodriguez Caglianone, adding that they didn’t have easy access to their attorneys.

Rodriguez Caglianone said she also met two pregnant women who lost their babies during their detention due to a lack of medical attention.

“There were people that had cancer. They did their first chemo before they were in, and they were not allowed to get their second chemo,” Rodriguez Caglianone said through tears about a woman who had been diagnosed with breast cancer before her detention.

Rodriguez Caglianone said there was a “lack of humanity” behind bars, and the elderly were also mistreated.

“I have kids her age,” Wasserman Schultz said through tears during the news conference.

Venezuelan woman released from ICE custody in Pompano Beach following family protest

Rodriguez Caglianone was born in Venezuela, and her asylum request has been pending for about nine years.

She traveled to the U.S. with a tourist visa and applied for asylum in 2017. She also had Temporary Protected Status from 2023 to last year when the Trump administration ended the program.

While living in South Florida, Rodriguez Caglianone played soccer for St. Thomas University and earned a Master of Business Administration last year. She doesn’t have a criminal record.

“She is my little cousin, and my job is to protect her, and to feel like I wasn’t able to do that — it’s heartbreaking,” Rodriguez Caglianone’s cousin Gabriel Dominguez told reporters.

ICE detained Rodriguez Caglianone at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as she attempted to travel to North Carolina to watch the FIFA World Cup on July 19 with friends.

“They handcuffed me like a criminal,” Rodriguez Caglianone said about her detention at FLL.

ICE released Rodriguez Caglianone on Monday from the Broward Transitional Center after Wasserman Schultz’s advocacy. Her family, friends, and supporters used the “Free CC” hashtag in protest.

“There were a lot of injustices,” Rodriguez Caglianone said in Spanish about what she witnessed during her detention.

Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat critical of President Donald Trump’s push for deportations, is running for re-election in the 20th congressional district, after representing the 25th district, which changed during recent state redistricting.

Watch the news conference