Investigating rumors Miami ICE detainees were shackled and forced to eat 'like dogs'

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continued to carry out the mass deportation efforts of President Donald Trump's administration in mid-2025, new claims about the conditions within three ICE detention facilities in Florida circulated online.

In July, users on social media platforms like Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), TikTok (archived) and Reddit posted about the rumor, some sharing an article from The Guardian that alleged "migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from Styrofoam plates 'like dogs.'"

One user on Instagram (archived) posted The Guardian's article and said, "This is not okay. This is not justice."

The alleged news circulated online as reports indicated that despite the massive uptick in ICE detainees since Trump's inauguration in January, 72% of them had no criminal convictions. 

The claim that detainees at three Florida ICE detention centers were being forced to eat "like dogs" originated with a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), a nonprofit organization that "investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world," according to their website. 

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Snopes in an email (full statement below) that the claim was false.

Because Snopes has not been able to independently confirm or disprove the report's claims or DHS' denial, we have opted not to rate the claim based on the available evidence.

In the 92-page report from July 2025, HRW published a variety of interviews with former detainees, "eight men and three women" held in Florida ICE processing centers. 

The report stated that "detainees in three Florida facilities told Human Rights Watch that ICE detention officers and private contractor guards treated them in a degrading and dehumanizing manner." The facilities in question included Krome Processing Center, FDC Miami and Broward Transition Center (BTC). The report alleged a wide variety of rights violations.

"Krome consistently emerged as an abusive and degrading facility, with failures spanning intake, detention, and medical care. Individuals described prolonged confinement in frigid, overcrowded processing cells without bedding, adequate clothing, or access to hygiene," the report said. "Women were also detained there for processing despite its being a male-only facility. They had no showers or privacy, and some were exposed to voyeurism by male detainees."

HRW stated such actions violated "ICE's own standards, including the 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) governing Krome and BTC, and the 2019 National Detention Standards (NDS) governing the detention of immigrants at FDC." 

The report further alleged the facilities violated "U.S. obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and key standards articulated under the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules)."

The specific allegation of being forced to eat "like a dog" stemmed from HRW's interview with Harpinder Chauhan, reportedly "a 56-year-old British entrepreneur and father of two" who was detained by ICE in February 2025 after getting "into trouble with his taxes." 

Chauhan described dozens of men held in a single cell for hours with "their feet shackled, and their hands tied behind their backs." He continued: 

By then it was 5 p.m. and no one had had lunch. Some had not even had breakfast. We could see the food through the bars of our holding cell in Styrofoam containers on a cart. The food was in front of us, but the guards refused to give it to us. At 7 p.m., they finally gave us lunch, but only after another guard protested on our behalf. We were chained though, so we could not reach the plates with our hands. We had to put the plates on chairs and then bend down and eat with our mouths, like dogs.

Reached for comment via email, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Snopes: 

Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are FALSE. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. 

Additionally, it is not uncommon for female detainees to be staged at Krome Detention Center. Female detainees are not placed into general population and male detainees have absolutely ZERO access to female detainees. Like all detainees these women have access to medical care. 

Make no mistake, this type of lies is contributing to the over 830% increase in assaults on the men and women of ICE who put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens.

Snopes also reached out directly to ICE, which is part of DHS, for comment and will update this article if we receive a response. It is worth noting the "830% increase in assaults" on ICE agents was self-reported by DHS as an increase from 2024, but a search for independent data on the alleged assaults only pointed back to DHS.

Despite DHS' claim that the "well-being of individuals" in custody is "top priority," the HRW report further alleged that "in at least two cases, the denial of essential medications and the delays in receiving healthcare may have contributed to detainees' deaths."

This was not the first rumor we've investigated about conditions at Florida immigration detention centers. For example, in early 2025 we looked into reports of severe overcrowding at Krome.