Immigration: A Cuban doctor denounces overcrowding in the ICE office in Florida

Havana/The Cuban doctor Jose Rafael denounced “the inhuman conditions” in which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) detains hundreds of migrants in the offices in Miramar, Florida, through an audio that he sent to journalist Javier Díaz.

“There are 60 people locked in a 12-meter room,” one of several areas in the place, said the migrant who has an I-220A form, a “provisional release order” on parole offered by the United States Government to people who were detained when entering the country illegally.

The doctor says that “there are at least 150 people” in Miramar, which operated until before mid-2026 as an administrative registration and appointment office. However, before the Alligator Alcatraz prison closure Due to the high operating cost and the increase in arrests, Miramar has been used as a holding center.

The Cuban doctor confirms that the place does not have the conditions to keep people for long periods. “There are no medical services or nurses” and adds that the lack of health personnel was evidenced by the epileptic attack suffered by one of the inmates. “There he convulsed in front of everyone.”

José Rafael comments that the guards do nothing. “What they say is that we be stronger.” In Miramar, people are practically incommunicado because there is only one telephone.” The doctor assures that there are detainees in the place who “are not criminals, people who are hunted while they go to work.”

The doctor says that “there are at least 150 people” in Miramar, which operated until before mid-2026 as an administrative registration and appointment office

According to the testimony, in the area where it is located “there is one telephone for 120 people.” In addition, it has not been possible to shower because there is “a boiler (water heater) for 55 people.”

The testimony of the migrant from the Island confirms the complaint made last July by the Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz after his surprise visit to the place. “The conditions in which they have these people are horrendous,” he stressed. “There are literally people lying on the floor,” he said. “There is absolutely no space. It’s wall-to-wall people.”

Wasserman Schultz noted that each holding room has a toilet in the corner without adequate privacy, forcing detainees to eat, sleep and use the bathroom in the same small space.

The director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (Lulac), Juan Proaño, stated last August that Miramar has become a “trap” for migrants. People go to an appointment with immigration and end up arrested. “They are being kidnapped in the middle of their registration appointment. Without warning, without a hearing, without a chance to say goodbye. Their American-born children, American citizens, are left waiting in the parking lot or at school, wondering why mom or dad never came home. This is not law enforcement.”

Human rights organizations have reported systematic abuses, overcrowding, medical neglect, and deaths in custody in ICE detention centers.

A report of CBS News revealed last July that fifteen of ICE’s 45 immigration detention centers had not been inspected in more than 12 months as of the end of June, while five had no record of any inspections. “Many facilities have deficiencies and frequent reassessments are required to ensure these deficiencies are addressed,” said Dr. Annette Dekker, associate professor at UCLA School of Medicine.

The analysis highlights that the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona, with an average of 518 detainees per day, was last inspected in December 2024. While the Golden State Annex in McFarland (California), which has an average of 603 detainees per day, has not been inspected since January 2025, despite constant complaints of negligence by immigrants detained in this prison.

An investigation by the United States Government also confirmed the conditions of overcrowding, abuse and the use of small metal cages as “calm zones” for migrants detained at Alligator Alcatraz, before its closure in the middle of the year in South Florida.

According to inspectors, up to 79 migrants were confined in that center “between several minutes and almost two hours” in small cages measuring 1.7 meters in diameter between July 17, 2025 and January 18, 2026.