Building community outside an ICE facility

Last month, I visited the Miramar Circle of Protection, a weekly gathering in Florida where AFSC staff and volunteers provide support and resources to people navigating the immigration system. This mutual aid project began in 2017 at the start of the first Trump administration.  

Before the Circle of Protection was formed, few knew that the nondescript building in Miramar was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. But every day, immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as all over the world, come to its doors to meet with ICE officials. Some are seeking safety and refuge in the U.S. after fleeing violence, persecution, or natural disasters in their native countries. Others have lived in the U.S. for decades and have built families and lives here.  

Immigrants should be treated with the compassion and respect we all deserve. But at Miramar, they faced inhumane conditions while waiting outside for their ICE appointments. Every day, hundreds of people were forced to stand in long lines, snaking around the block, for hours under the hot sun to attend their appointments. Just a few years ago, there were no restrooms, no shade, and no friendly faces to assist them during one of their hardest times. It wasn’t uncommon for people to faint while waiting.  

Because of advocacy by the Miramar Circle of Protection, a shade structure has since been built outside the facility. Fans were installed to ease the heat. Air-conditioned restrooms are now available in the parking lot.  

But today, Florida’s immigrant community continues to face other dangers. The current Trump administration has vastly expanded detention and deportations, tearing apart families and neighborhoods. Across the country, government raids are disrupting our communities and creating a culture of fear. 

The work of the Miramar Circle of Protection is more important than ever. Maria Bilbao, AFSC campaigns coordinator, leads this effort for AFSC. Every Wednesday, she and a group of six to 10 volunteers set up shop in the shade across the street from the facility. They provide water, coffee, homemade pasteles, and clothes. In addition to mutual aid, they serve as a resource hub, providing individuals with Know Your Rights information, contacts for legal aid services, referrals to the statewide support hotline that tracks detentions, and more.  

The group’s most important offerings, however, may be the gifts of community, solidarity, and a measure of dignity. On the day that I visited, we heard stories of people spending hundreds of dollars on taxi rides to the check-in facility, only to be told by ICE they must return another day. Parents, unaware of the long waits, brought their children with them. They were grateful to find the welcoming arms of our volunteers, who cared for their families as they stood in line for hours. 

Our team also documents what’s happening at the facility. That includes recording the license plates of abandoned cars left by individuals who came for routine appointments but were ultimately detained. Our team has seen an increase in these cases in recent months. Our staff do all that they can to help families find their loved ones in detention centers.  

Our volunteers speak of these individuals as having been “disappeared,” a term with a horrifying context for people from Latin America with firsthand experience with repressive regimes. Imagine seeking safety in the United States, only to face the same brutal human rights abuses and disappearances of loved ones that you fled your home country to escape. 

A week before our visit, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had held a press conference at the Miramar ICE Center to tout ICE’s latest efforts to detain and deport hundreds of immigrants from Florida, with help from state police. The governor celebrated tearing apart families while standing in front of an armed personnel carrier. It was a military prop designed to imply that detained mothers, daughters, sons, and fathers were dangerous when nothing could be further from the truth.   

Immigrants make our communities stronger. They are friends, neighbors, workers, students, and business owners. They come to the United States to find work, to feed their families, to protect the ones they love. There is room for everyone here. 

Today, the real threats we face lie in U.S. immigration policy. The Trump administration is threatening our collective safety by expanding detention and deportations, dismantling longstanding rights, and enacting policies that dehumanize immigrants.  

As a Quaker organization, AFSC’s belief in the divine worth of every person calls us to act for justice. We are committed to working alongside immigrants, allies, and communities for welcoming, dignified, and just immigration policies.   

Every Wednesday that AFSC staff and volunteers set up their tables at Miramar, they show us the world that we’re working toward. They transform an unwelcoming place into a space where people can find the support and compassion we all deserve.   

Learn more about the AFSC Florida program and donate today to support this vital work.