By Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement added a semi-permanent structure to house migrants at a detention center in Miami following reports of overcrowding.
An ICE spokesperson acknowledged the structure on Monday, after South Florida U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat, said she saw a “tent city” at the Krome North Service Processing Center during her visit Thursday. Wilson decided to visit the detention facility after hearing that people had to sleep on concrete floors.
“The new multi-use facility is a climate-controlled structure with beds, showers and bathrooms to house detainees,” ICE public affairs officer Nestor Yglesias wrote to the Florida Phoenix. “The facility complies with detention standards in accordance with ICE policy. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not provide population or capacity numbers due to operational tempo and security concerns.”
Yglesias described the structure as hard-sided but didn’t provide information about the number of beds or whether ICE had added other semi-permanent buildings in other detention centers in the state.
After her visit to Krome, Wilson told reporters that she had seen a “tent city” that she estimated could house 400 people and that officials told her had been built in 14 days. The ICE spokesperson declined to confirm how long it took to build the structure. Wilson also said she hadn’t seen overcrowding that immigrant rights groups, detainees, and attorneys have reported.
“This is not my first rodeo. I was down at Homestead when the children were there, and I’ve been to Krome before, and I’ve been to prisons all across Florida, especially female prisons,” Wilson said. “So, I know what they do. They take them on a field trip, so you won’t see who is actually in there, but they did admit that they are building a tent city.”
Juan Agudelo, field office director for ICE in Miami, said some detention centers experienced temporary overcrowding but that conditions Wilson saw in Krome were not staged.
“What Congresswoman Wilson saw today is what ICE does on a daily basis,” Agudelo said in a statement. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE.”
A four-day large-scale operation in which federal authorities and local police claimed they had arrested nearly 800 people subject to deportation could lead to increased population numbers at Krome.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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