Jacob Flowers / AFSC
MIAMI (October 2, 2026) — The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice) filed a federal class action lawsuit today on behalf of people held in custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Miramar Field Office, alleging that the unconstitutional conditions of confinement have turned an administrative check-in site into a de facto detention facility with no beds, no functioning medical care and no independent oversight.
“While due process is supposed to extend to every person in this country, ICE has chosen to ignore the Fifth Amendment and instead detain people for days on end in degrading and dangerous conditions at the Miramar Field Office,” said A.J Hernandez Anderson, deputy legal director for immigrant justice, SPLC. “We’re asking the court to force ICE to stop using Miramar as the detention facility it was never built to be. Denying the people held at Miramar beds, food, water, medical care—basic necessities—is dehumanizing and dangerous and ICE must be held accountable.”
“A site meant for a routine check-in has become a place where the human rights and human dignity of people are undermined. Families show up to follow the rules of immigration law but instead are held for days in deplorable conditions that include overcrowded floors with no beds, no medical help, exposed toilets and limited access to lawyers,” said Paul R. Chavez, Director of Litigation and Advocacy for Americans for Immigrant Justice. “What people are facing inside Miramar is not a matter of limited resources. It is about being denied humane treatment and basic safeguards. Whether fundamental human decency is followed should not depend on which building a person happens to be held in.”
Since October 2025, ICE has used the Miramar facility to hold people for days at a time — far beyond the 12-hour limit set by ICE’s own policy. Detained people are forced to sleep on bare concrete floors with only aluminum foil blankets, packed into holding cells built for a fraction of the number of people. The only toilets available sit in open view of surveillance cameras and other detained people, denying them any bodily privacy. Detained people have also been denied adequate food and water for extended periods of time.
In addition to its deplorable conditions, the facility has no on-site medical staff and no functioning system to respond to medical emergencies. Miramar’s own officers say medical emergencies occur at least once a day. People held at Miramar have also been cut off from their attorneys and denied confidential phone calls and in-person legal visits, while ICE has refused to update its online detainee locator or respond to attorneys trying to locate their clients.
“The application of due process does not depend on convenience. Due process is an obligation the U.S. Constitution has with every single human being,” said Sui Chung, Executive Director of Americans for Immigrant Justice. “Holding someone in the inhuman conditions detailed in this complaint means that our fellow human beings are not being afforded basic human rights. That obligation does not end just because people are held out of public view, away from their families, communities, and attorneys.”
The pattern of abuse at Miramar is not new. Since last summer, released detainees and their families have described being crammed into rooms with dozens of others, denied showers for weeks and given spoiled or moldy food. In July, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, made an unannounced oversight visit and found roughly 150 people packed into cells, sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the floor next to exposed toilets. House Oversight Committee ranking members Robert Garcia, Bennie Thompson and Maxwell Frost have separately demanded answers from ICE regarding dangerous conditions at Florida immigration facilities, including Miramar.
“Since 2017 our community has been gathering outside the Miramar facility to offer support and solidarity to people detained by ICE,” said Guadalupe De la Cruz, director of the Florida program, American Friends Service Committee. “For months we have been hearing disturbing reports of people held for long periods of time packed into overcrowded spaces without basic sanitation or bedding. We are so glad that our partners at SPLC and AI Justice are filing this lawsuit and we will continue to demand an end to these horrific conditions and the cruel and arbitrary detention policies that underlie them.”
The complaint is available here.
###
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) promotes a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light within each person, we nurture the seeds of change and the respect for human life to fundamentally transform our societies and institutions. We work with people and partners worldwide, of all faiths and backgrounds, to meet urgent community needs, challenge injustice, and build peace.
Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice) is an award-winning non-profit law firm that fights for justice for immigrants through a combination of free direct representation, impact litigation, advocacy, and outreach. AI Justice is the only statewide immigrant defense nonprofit that provides free legal services to low-income people in all immigration detention facilities in Florida. www.aijustice.org
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people. For more information, visit www.splcenter.org