Immigration lawyers and correctional officers say an influx of hundreds of immigrant detainees at a federal prison in Miami has thrown the facility into disarray, leading to a detainee revolt in April that was put down with force.
The details of that April 15 disturbance—in which detainees flooded a floor of the prison and correctional officers responded with concussive flashbang grenades—have not been previously reported outside of a few sparse details in one local news story, and they show the strain that President Donald Trump's mass deportation has put on an already distressed federal prison.
Federal Detention Center Miami, a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility, is now holding roughly 400 people detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for alleged immigration violations. At the same time, four of the eight elevators that staff rely on to navigate the multi-story tower are broken.
