Lawsuit alleges Miramar ICE facility is acting as a defacto civil detention center

A federal class action filed in Miami accuses DHS and ICE of using their Miramar field office as an unauthorized detention center, holding people for days without beds, adequate food, or access to counsel. The suit, brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans for Immigrant Justice on behalf of two detainees, says the facility's listed capacity of 56 has held as many as 150 people at once.

Allegations include detainees sleeping on floors, being denied medical care for conditions like pregnancy, hypertension, and HIV, and being shackled up to 16 hours a day. The claims echo a whistleblower report from September that triggered a House Oversight investigation, as well as an unannounced visit by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in July.

The lawsuit asks a judge to declare the office a field facility that must be emptied each night and to bar the government from coercing detainees into signing documents. Attorneys say due process shouldn't depend on which building someone is held in.

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