The Krome Detention Center is facing backlash following reports of two deaths since the start of the Trump administration, the mistreatment of female detainees, and the tripling of the facility’s capacity. Protesters from all over the state voiced their concerns on Saturday outside of the center.
“I got up at 6 a.m. to be here,” said Nander, an Orlando resident who did not want to share her last name. “The way that these migrants are being treated is inhumane […] And it’s for no reason. These are hardworking people. They pay their taxes. They’re not hurting anybody.”
Since late January, two men have died at the facility: Genry Guillen Ruiz, 29, and Maksym Chernyak, 44.
Not much is known about the conditions surrounding the death of Guillen Ruiz, a Honduran who died on Jan. 23. However, it is reported that both him and Chernyak, a Ukrainian, entered the detention center healthy.
Chernyak was granted humanitarian parole in the U.S. to flee his war-torn nation. According to the Miami Herald, medical exams indicated signs that he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. He had no pre-existing conditions, but his family believes that his death on Feb. 20 was preventable, stating he had gotten sick and suffered high blood pressure in “freezing, overcrowding cells.”
Immigration lawyer Edsel Guerrero Machado frequently visits the Krome Detention Center and serves detainees currently inside it. He told Caplin News that the overcrowding has caused some of his clients to not have frequent access to clean toilets or a shower.
USA Today also revealed the experiences of four women who were held in the facility in February, which is designated for men, and treated “like animals.”
They claimed to be chained at the wrist, waist and chest and loaded onto a bus for six to twelve hours. They were not given access to toilets and were told by guards to urinate or defecate on the floor. When they arrived, they were placed in overcrowded holding cells, and some barely had access to food or water.
Organizer and founder of the advocacy group Florida Valkyries, Bryson Holtzer, said that they were protesting outside of the facility to “call attention to the egregious human rights violations that are occuring not just in front of the Krome Detention Center but ICE detention centers across the country.”
Protesters held up signs of recent ICE detainees from across the nation, like pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.
“We’ve realized that putting names to faces and really humanizing the victims of these hate crimes kind of makes people realize that that is what they are,” said Holtzer. “Regardless of somebody’s citizenship status, they deserved to be treated as a human.
