MIRAMAR, Fla. — Advocates and community leaders gathered on Wednesday at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miramar to denounce whistleblower allegations that immigrants held there are staying in overly crowded quarters, using filthy bathrooms, sleeping on the floor and being restrained.

“How can this be happening without any transparency, independent supervision, accountability? We have a right to know what’s happening behind these doors,” said Maria Elena Muñoz, a representative of the Miramar Circle of Protection, a group that supports immigrants weekly at the facility.

They called on Florida members of Congress, who can visit the facility unannounced under federal law, to witness the situation for themselves.

“Imagine that conditions are so bad that a whistleblower has come forward,” said Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, the policy coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee of Florida.

The public showing comes days after congressional Democrats published allegations and images from a whistleblower denouncing abusive conditions in Miramar that show people sleeping on the floor, being held in a garage entry, and overflowing toilets. On Wednesday, the activists displayed the photos behind them as they spoke.

The facility at Miramar held 342 people at one point even though it has a maximum capacity of 50, according to claims released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Immigrants held in the garage have been shackled while sleeping, the summary of whistleblower allegations continued. They are continuously under bright lights, have no access to basic hygiene products like soap, and must use portable toilets that the facility won’t clean.

The event also follows separate, recently released reports from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General that found severe overcrowding at the Krome Detention Center in Miami and detention standard violations at the now-defunct facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades. At Alligator Alcatraz, immigrants were held in a cage as punishment.

Also released on Monday were whistleblower allegations about another ICE facility in Orlando, where people are so crammed they are forced to stand up and have no access to the outside for up to two weeks, according to Democrats on the Oversight Committee. The whistleblower claims also allege that officers were told to shackle people around the clock at one point to address a lack of staffing.

The activists also held a press conference in July at the Miramar ICE facilty to denounce conditions there. That’s when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited unannounced and called the conditions she witnessed “horrific.” Last month, a Miami Herald investigation found that 911 medical calls from the facility had risen sharply between July 2025 and July 2026.

Maria Bilbao, the campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, criticized Miami’s Republican delegation in Congress for not yet having visited the center, which is typically used for routine ICE check-ins. Under the second Trump administration, it has become a detention hotspot. People detained around South Florida are also brought there temporarily before being relocated to other local, long-term detention facilities.

“They’re always talking about human rights in Nicaragua, in Venezuela, in Cuba. When this is happening in their own backyard, where are their investigations?” said Bilbao.

A religious worker who showed up to support the activists said he saw a waste management truck come in Wednesday morning. That’s after photos of a pile of trashbags and dirty toilets emerged as part of the whistleblower’s claims.

In a statement to the Miami Herald, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not address the whistleblower’s allegations and the photos detailing conditions at Miramar.

“Miramar is a processing facility not a detention facility. Illegal aliens are processed and transferred to permanent housing at a detention facility,” said the spokesperson. “If you break the law, you will face the consequences. Illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”

On Wednesday, the Miramar Circle of Protection set up tables to provide water, coffee and food to immigrants and their relatives awaiting appointments at the check-in office. There were sugar cookies and Argentinian empanadas along with worksheets about what to do if immigration agents showed up at someone’s house and what rights people have in that situation. Nearby, relatives of people already inside the facility for appointments awaited nervously on foldable chairs to see if their loved ones came out. A poster behind them said: “Free them all. All immigrants deserve dignity and respect.”

David Rosa, an evangelical pastor, has been to the facility recently to support a friend with an appointment at Miramar. His friend was desperate to use the bathroom, but the conditions were so dire that she did not. Rosa met a Honduran landscaper, still in his work uniform and detained there for three days, he said.

He recalled witnessing another woman leaving the facility. “She dropped to her knees. She did the sign of the cross in extreme relief. Almost as if coming out of a nightmare,” he said.

Rosa closed out the Wednesday event with a prayer for detained immigrants and their families.

“May we never become so accustomed to suffering that we stop seeing the humanity of those experiencing it.”

©2026 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.