Even as Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava seeks to inspect the conditions of immigrants at the Krome Detention Center, immigrant groups and a federal judge say the mayor is in breach of a court settlement, resulting in Miami-Dade residents unnecessarily being sent to the facility.
A little-known 2021 settlement agreement between the county and immigrant groups was meant to shield some undocumented immigrants in county jails from being handed over to federal immigration authorities if they were victims or witnesses of a crime, exceptions explicitly allowed by state law. The county runs the jails system.
But since 2022, according to U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams, the county has not abided by that agreement. The result is dozens of residents potentially being transferred to federal custody and facing deportation.
The judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said it would be a "gross understatement" to say she is disappointed by the Levine Cava administration's conduct in violating the settlement agreement. Plaintiffs agreed.
"Unfortunately, what we see is that our local government continues to try to do the work of federal immigration enforcement in a way that makes our communities less safe," said Oscar Londoño, co-executive director at the immigration non-profit WeCount!, one of the groups that brought the original court case.
READ MORE: Taken by ICE moments after securing a path to legal migrant status: A Honduran's story
The mayor's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The case in federal court has emerged at a time when President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis are pressuring more local elected leaders to cooperate in helping identify and deport undocumented immigrants.
The judge even noted the politically-charged climate in Florida, but said it was no excuse for Miami-Dade to violate violate — or continue violating — the legal settlement.
A 2018 court case springs back to life
The settlement came out of a court case in which an unnamed plaintiff and two nonprofits groups — WeCount! and the Florida Immigrant Coalition — sued Miami-Dade County in 2018, after it began holding immigrants for the federal government during President Trump's first term of office. The immigrants were first encountered by local police.
The groups alleged that the immigration "holds" violated the Constitution, because individuals were being held by the county even after they paid bail or completed their short sentences. Without a warrant or a document that shows probable cause, the county had no authority to keep them in custody, the lawsuit argued.
The county previously refused to comply with those hold requests because they cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, but it began complying after the first Trump administration threatened to withhold funds from local governments that did not comply.
The unnamed plaintiff in the case was a Homestead resident who was arrested for driving without a valid license. She had three children who are US citizens.
READ MORE: From 'Sanctuary City' And Back Again: Inside Miami-Dade's Five Year Journey
"She had a small accident, un choquecito," Andres, her husband, who lived on a farm in South Dade, told WLRN in 2018. WLRN withheld his full name at the time because of fear of retribution. "But the police arrested her and they immediately put a hold on her. We put down the bond money but it didn't do anything. They just kept the money and gave her to ICE."
For years, the case dragged on in the courts. The original settlement agreement was unanimously approved by the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners in June of 2021, with a 13-0 vote. Although the commission seats are technically nonpartisan, commissioners who are registered Democrats voted to approve the agreement alongside registered Republicans, including commissioner Rene Garcia, who was then the chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party.
Over the first few months of the settlement being in effect, dozens of Miami-Dade residents who were victims or witnesses of crimes were prevented from being transferred to ICE custody and potential deportation, according to federal court filings. The way the agreement worked was that the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office employees would communicate with the county jail system when it identified inmates that could benefit from the protections.
An email sent from Assistant Public Defender Trisha Pasdach to a plaintiff attorney in February of 2022 laid out the stakes of the settlement agreement.
"[O]n at least one occasion, your work has saved a client from substantial risk of personal harm. We have a client who is being targeted by MS13 and has already been hospitalized once while in Dade county [sic] custody," wrote Pasdach. "Going into ICE custody would have been incredibly dangerous, and getting deported is potentially a death sentence. Thanks to your work, we were able to get the hold lifted."
But then, the county abruptly stopped responding to requests to protect certain inmates, just as a statewide grand jury began investigating immigration issues in Florida. The county only complied with the settlement agreement between September 2021 and July 2022.
“ If we can't get their compliance after months, months, months, or years of pushing for this, then what good is this? I mean, we had an agreement that was signed off on and approved."
Two months after the case work stopped, Pasdach sent Rebecca Sharpless of the University of Miami Immigration Clinic — which helped with the cases — an email asking if they should still be screening for victims or witnesses of crimes. Pasdach wrote that she asked the county multiple times for updates on pending cases and whether to keep screening inmates for the protections.
"But they have not responded to any of our submissions or lifted any holds for about the last eight weeks. Additionally, it appears that ICE is now re-issuing detainers for inmates who previously had their holds lifted due to the applicability of a statutory exemption, and the County is placing the new hold," Pasdach wrote.
The breakdown of communications and the established process led to a prolonged back and forth in the courts between the parties, including the Immigration Clinic and the University of Miami, which made submissions for 13 of the 44 exemption declarations.
Last April, Williams, the federal judge, ordered the county to respond to pending exemption requests filed by the groups.
Beginning last August, fifteen separate mediation meetings took place between the immigrant groups and the county, trying to hammer out a solution. The hope was either to get the county to continue complying with the settlement, or to modify the settlement.
"Nearly all those meetings have lasted for hours," wrote Chris McAliley, a special master appointed by the judge to mediate the case. "Unfortunately, we have achieved neither goal and at this time we have exhausted the possibilities for doing so."
Special master McAliley then asked the judge to relieve her of duties, and to directly handle the case.
'What good is this?'
At a hearing in early April, Williams appeared irritated that things escalated to this point and she had to get involved again.
Miriam Haskell, an attorney with the Community Justice Project representing the immigrants and nonprofit groups, told WLRN the groups are all frustrated at the county's actions. When the county was in compliance with the settlement agreement, between nine to twelve people had ICE holds lifted from their case per month, she estimated.
Mayor Levine Cava pushed back on then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez' decision to begin complying with ICE detainer requests back in 2017, noted Haskell. Then, the settlement agreement for the case was signed after Levine Cava was elected mayor in 2020.
" If we can't get their compliance after months, months, months, or years of pushing for this, then what good is this?" said Haskell, referring to the entire legal process. "I mean, we had an agreement that was signed off on and approved by the entire Board of County Commissioners and we had to spend months and months and months, if not years by now, litigating just to get them to comply."
The impetus for getting the county to abide by the decision is more acute now that the conditions at the Krome Detention Center are attracting widespread scrutiny, including from the mayor.
The mayor sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in early April asking for permission to visit the detention center.
"It is vital that we ensure humane conditions for the thousands of people in detention," the mayor wrote.
" There have been people who should have been released under the settlement agreement who did go to Krome and who did go into immigration custody," said Haskell. "The Miami-Dade County jail is a feeder to Krome. This settlement provides an opportunity for those numbers to be reduced."
A number of individuals with ICE holds are currently being held on the most seemingly harmless charges like camping and fish and wildlife violations, said Haskell. Court records show that people who received the exemption in the past also included those facing charges of crimes like armed robbery and sexual battery.
Being granted an exemption from an ICE hold does not mean someone will escape pending criminal charges or will immediately be let out of jail. If convicted of a serious crime, they can still face a prison sentence. The protection under state law simply prevents them from being transferred to federal custody since they have been a witness to or victim of another crime.
Court filings for exemption cases that did not receive a response from the county include details of beatings and kidnappings that the immigrant has faced, sometimes in their home country. Asylum seekers have attached files to their cases. In other cases, attorneys presented evidence that they have been the victim of, or have witnessed, a crime in Miami-Dade County.
Williams ordered the county to pay legal fees amounting to $354,289 to cover the costs of plaintiffs that have spent nearly three years trying to get the county to comply with the settlement.
A new order in the case outlining the county's violation of the settlement and next steps in the process for bringing the county into compliance is expected within the coming week.
Copyright 2025 WLRN Public Media
