Fire & I.C.E. literally in South Florida
By Philip Cardella 12 May 2026
Pembroke Pines, Florida
As I've mentioned, I suspect the fires throughout Florida–with some at the Georgia on the northern border of the state and others in Miami-Dade County, the southernmost mainland county in the state–are playing a role in the dismantling of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz.
The South Florida Detention Center (one of its real names, as opposed to the racist joke nickname) has been slated for dismantling before, so let's not assume its gone until its gone. That said, I.C.E. is busy as ever only a few dozen miles from the detention center.
On Monday, 11 May 2026 I went out to see the fire by the Miami-Dade and Broward County line for myself.
I went out to Everglades Holiday Park, which is just north of where Krome Rd and Okeechobee Road intersect and observed the fire and captured some footage.
Turns out a number of media outlets chose the spot for photos.
I captured some decent footage but, due to me using a camera that is primarily a still frame camera, some of the best footage was too blurry to use. So I decided to go back the next day.
To my pleasant surprise, despite an acidic reek of smoke still in the air, the fire was gone–at least in that area.
However, an unpleasant surprise awaited me.
As I continued north along Okeechobee Road, I saw ICE, complete with a media member wearing a bulletproof vest, detaining someone on the very same road I had been on the previous day. This is about 20 hours after I drove the same road marveling at the plume of smoke dominating sky. I captured the ICE activity on my phone (which is mounted to my window) and drove on to the same park, Everglades Holiday Park, from which I shot the footage of the fire.
On the way back home, not ten minutes later, I noted that the same ICE vehicles were now on the other side of the street, still on the northbound side, detaining a second car.
Krome Road is important, but not necessarily for reasons some might think.
Krome Road was made infamous by the immigrant detention center at the intersection of Krome Road and 8th Street (aka Calle Ocho, aka Tamiami Trail). Built on the corpse of a Cold War Era surface to missile base, the facility opened for detaining citizens and denying them habeas corpus in the 1970s–one of the first such facilities in the modern United States. It was later closed due to horrifying conditions. After that, it was reopened with somewhat improved conditions and remains open to this day.
That detention center is not the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, but is about 30 miles east along the same street.
That's not why Krome Road is important, however. Not the only reason, anyway. Krome Road is the backbone of the entire agriculture industry for Miami-Dade County. Most produce grown in Miami-Dade County travels along it and most house plants grown in the United States travel it.
Ever own a houseplant? Chances are it started its travel to your house on Krome Road.
Krome Road effectively dead ends into Okeechobee Road, aka US 27, almost exactly where Miami-Dade and Broward Counties meet. From there, US 27 heads to Interstate 75, which itself goes all the way to Canada via Michigan.
Notably, the stretch between Krome Road's intersection with Okeechobee Road and Interstate 75 has almost no buildings along it. This means there are very few addresses along it. This means that its very hard to pinpoint where anything along the road, including ICE activity.
