As part of the effort to increase community support and accountability at the Miramar detention facility, youth across South Florida joined the Miramar Circle of Protection efforts on May 25th, to bring resistance and ask the Mayor of Miramar, Wayne Messam, to shutdown the check-in center.
“We have a facility that is violating codes without consequences; we have people being abducted, mistreated and all this is happening in in front our faces in Miramar. We invite the Mayor to sit down with us because we know that there is so much he can do to provide dignity to all the people that are attending to their check-ins,” said Ricardo Campos, DACA recipient and FL State Director at United We Dream.
The Circle of Protection has been recording footage of the long lines and conditions for nearly a year. Just last week, the Miami New Times highlighted a video in which a security guard threatened to arrest an activist for recording conditions at the facility. You can find more content by searching #ICEoutofMiami.
The Miramar ICE Facility is the place where immigrant families with pending immigration cases wait in long lines to go to “check-in” — in other words, to meet face-to-face with a deportation agent who will decide whether they can stay in the country to continue their case or if they will be deported. Under Trump’s administration, check-ins have changed from once every year to once every three months, and in some cases, once every 15 days.
There is no access to bathrooms or private areas for breastfeeding mothers. There is no seating for people with disabilities. There is very limited parking and deportation agents have called private tow companies to tow cars.
“The consequences caused to children and youth by a possible family separation at a critical stage of their development are catastrophic. Why do we have to expose children and youth to this inhuman treatment?” asked Yaquelin Lopez, part of the Miramar Circle of Protection and Women Working Together U.S.A.
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