Immigrant support groups gathered outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Miramar on Wednesday to press a case for local governments to stop cooperating with federal agents as they round up undocumented foreign nationals living in South Florida.
Their news conference came just two days after Temporary Protection Status technically expired for 350,000 Haitians nationally; tens of thousands reside in South Florida. It remained unclear what immediate action the Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security intends to take once a federal judge in Washington, D.C., lifts a stay against the deportation of Haitians, a ruling that could come this week.
While a definitive removal campaign against newly undocumented Haitians had yet to move forward, employers were not hesitating to terminate employees whose documents expired. The Palm Beach County School District, for example, terminated 19 employees who lost their work authorizations. The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and Florida Health Care Association have said tens of thousands of people in their respective industries are likely to be affected by the loss of Haiti TPS.
The Miramar gathering on Wednesday was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Florida Immigrant Coalition and Miramar Circle of Protection organization. It was being staged, organizers said in a statement, “to address the alarming increase in [ICE] arrests across South Florida and the growing role of local governments in facilitating federal immigration enforcement.”
“The end of TPS for Haiti is leaving an estimated 158,000 Haitians in South Florida exposed to detention and deportation, highlighting the urgent need for local officials to do everything in their power to protect our neighbors,” the groups’ statement said.
“As you guys probably know and have covered yourselves, there’s been a significant uptick in immigration enforcement operations, not just in South Florida, but across the country, but it’s obviously hitting us here in this state, a state made up of immigrants,” said Thomas Kennedy, a policy analyst for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. “We’re seeing enforcement operations hitting South Florida, all over Miami-Dade, Homestead, the Lake Worth area, Palm Beach, Central Florida, Jacksonville, and that’s leading to a stress in detention capacity.”
An Associated Press analysis concluded that “nearly 39,000 immigrants were arrested in Florida in the 416 days beginning Jan. 20, 2025 — the start of President Donald Trump’s second term — through March 11, 2026.” The wire service cited data provided to the University of California, Berkeley’s, Deportation Data Project.
During the preceding 416 days of the Biden administration, there were 11,088 arrests, the analysis found.
And since March, deportation orders from immigration judges in Florida have risen 18%.
Immigrant rights supporters demonstrate outside the Miramar ICE field office on Wednesday as groups raised concerns about the growing numbers of arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants around Florida. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Rising fear factor
Several speakers in Miramar on Wednesday reiterated what many advocates have noted in the runup to the expiration of TPS for Haitians: Immigrant families are living in fear amid what they described as rising concerns about racial profiling, gaps in judicial due process, and, according to the groups’ statement, “the growing collaboration between local law enforcement agencies and ICE.”
“The recent surge in immigration arrests is tearing families apart and creating a climate of fear across our communities,” said Yareliz Mendez Zamora, an AFSC coordinator.
Advocates specifically called out the City of Miami “to end policies that contribute to family separation and the criminalization of immigrant communities, including its participation in the federal 287(g) program.”
Dating back to 1996, the program is a partnership between ICE and local agencies where law enforcement members are deputized to assist federal agents.
The city last year became part of a group of Florida municipalities that signed an agreement with ICE that allows police to ask individuals about their immigration status and to detain them if officers conclude they are violating immigration law.
In an interview across the street from the ICE field office in Miramar, which critics assert has been illegally used as an ad hoc detention center for undocumented immigrants, Kennedy said the government is “commandeering prisons and administrative offices because they don’t have anywhere to put these people.”
According to local published reports, Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins pledged to eliminate the city’s agreement with ICE during her election campaign and it remains in place. Two Miami police officers are said to have been deputized by ICE, but they had not been involved in any arrests.
An emailed message from the South Florida Sun Sentinel asking about Miami’s position on helping ICE was acknowledged by the city’s communications department, but a response with details was not immediately available.
In the weeks leading up to the final expiration date of TPS for Haitians, advocates say that fears have become entrenched in Haitian communities around South Florida, as immigrants once authorized to work in the United States started to lose their jobs, financial security and access to social services.
“No one should be afraid to take their child to school, seek medical care, report a crime, or go to work because local officials have chosen to aid a mass deportation agenda,” the advocates said in their statement.