Fort Wayne took to the streets Saturday, joining dozens of other Indiana communities in a statewide wave of protests demanding an end to ICE detention at the Miami Correctional Facility. Two detainees have already died inside those walls in 2026. For many Hoosiers, that number has become impossible to ignore.
Fort Wayne Crowds Flood Allen County Courthouse Green
At 1 p.m. on Saturday, dozens of protesters gathered on the Allen County Courthouse green in downtown Fort Wayne. They came carrying signs, waving flags, and raising their voices in a peaceful but pointed demonstration against what organizers are calling a human rights crisis unfolding in their own state.
Three Fort Wayne organizations led the local effort: Indivisible Northeast Indiana, Fuerza Unida, and Plymouth Congregational Church. Speakers at the rally included Rev. Martin Garcia of Amistad Presbyterian Church, Rev. Nicole Shaw of First Congregational Church in Angola, and Josh King of After Sunday. Singing Resistance Fort Wayne also led the crowd in song throughout the afternoon.
After the rally, participants marched from the courthouse to the Allen County Jail. Local organizers say ICE routinely uses the jail to pick up immigrants before transferring them to detention facilities and deportation processing.
Fort Wayne was not alone. In total, 28 protests took place across the state of Indiana on Saturday. The events were coordinated by Indivisible Indiana, a grassroots movement that describes its mission as resisting authoritarianism and defending democracy.
Two Men Died Inside Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer”
The statewide action is rooted in grief. Two ICE detainees have died at the Miami Correctional Facility in 2026, less than two months apart from each other.
| Name | Age | Country of Origin | Date of Death | Cause of Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorth Sim | 59 | Cambodia | February 16, 2026 | Cardiovascular disease and diabetes |
| Tuan Van Bui | 55 | Vietnam | April 1, 2026 | Under investigation |
Lorth Sim, a Cambodian national and lawful permanent resident, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead on February 16. The Miami County Coroner ruled his death was caused by atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with diabetes listed as a significant contributing condition.
Tuan Van Bui, a Vietnamese native who had lived in the United States for over 25 years, died on April 1 after staff found him unresponsive in his cell. CPR and life-saving efforts were attempted, but he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. His cause of death remains under active investigation.
Both men were found unresponsive in their cells. Neither could be revived.
U.S. Rep. Andre Carson of Indianapolis visited the facility on April 9 to conduct a congressional oversight tour. He called for full investigations into both deaths and demanded an immediate end to ICE detention at Miami Correctional. Detainees told Carson that a functioning intercom system could have saved at least one life, saying a person was screaming for help and staff did not respond in time.
Detainees Report Neglect, Lockdowns, and Broken Systems
The two deaths alone tell a troubling story. But the conditions described by detainees inside Miami Correctional go well beyond two tragedies.
During his April oversight visit, Congressman Carson documented a detailed list of serious complaints shared directly by detainees. His office reported the following conditions:
- One detainee waited two weeks to receive Tylenol for a fever
- Another went weeks without receiving heartburn medication
- No functioning intercom system to report health emergencies, with screams for help reportedly ignored
- Religious dietary needs not accommodated, and no prayer mats provided
- Delayed court documents causing detainees to miss strict legal deadlines
- Only two sets of underwear, socks, and clothing provided, with broken laundry access
- Frequent lockdowns lasting six to seven consecutive days inside cells
- A detainee placed in solitary confinement without clothing, with a broken window exposing him to winter cold and feces reported on cell walls
One detainee reportedly received only a single pair of plastic Crocs as footwear throughout an Indiana winter that saw record-breaking snowfall.
ICE pushed back firmly on all of it. A spokesperson called the claims “false” and insisted all detainees have regular access to medication, medical care, mental health services, and dental care. The agency said it was providing high-quality care to those in custody.
But the detainees’ message to the public was direct. Two of them, speaking to Congressman Carson, simply said: “See our humanity. We are humans too.”
Indiana Earns Big While Advocates Demand Accountability
The Miami Correctional Facility is a maximum-security state prison located in Bunker Hill, Indiana, roughly 70 miles north of Indianapolis. Indiana began accepting ICE detainees at the facility in October 2025, following a two-year agreement between the Indiana Department of Correction and the Department of Homeland Security.
The agreement allows for up to 1,000 ICE detainee beds at the facility. As of early 2026, approximately 550 to 600 detainees were being held there at any given time. More than 800 people have passed through since intake began.
Indiana receives between $291 and $294 per detainee per day under the agreement. That is nearly four times the daily cost of housing a standard state inmate at the same facility.
The financial arrangement has drawn sharp criticism from advocates and civil liberties groups. The ACLU of Indiana argues that under the Fifth Amendment, civil immigration detainees are entitled to constitutional protections and cannot be denied medical care or held in conditions that amount to punishment.
Indivisible Indiana also pointed out in a press release that the facility lacks the staffing needed to safely manage both its state inmates and the growing number of ICE detainees, citing a current employee at the facility as a source for that concern.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has been a strong supporter of the arrangement. The Trump administration branded the facility the “Speedway Slammer,” a nod to Indiana’s racing culture, when DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the partnership in August 2025. At the time, Braun said Indiana was “proud” to partner with DHS and would “continue to lead the way among states” on immigration enforcement.
A Growing State Movement That Is Far From Over
Saturday’s demonstrations are part of a much larger wave of resistance building across Indiana. Students walked out of Indianapolis-area schools in February to protest ICE enforcement. Advocates have rallied outside the facility multiple times since the detainee deaths. At least 15 people are now known to have died in ICE custody across the United States in 2026 alone.
Sandra Garza, founder of Fuerza Unida, put the core argument simply. She said the original intention of the immigration system was to return people to their home countries in a humane way, and that intention has been abandoned. “We have now lost that humanity,” she said at Saturday’s rally.
The 70 percent figure is one that both Congressman Carson and local organizers have repeatedly emphasized. Nationwide, more than seven in ten people held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction on their record.
For Olive Rusk of Fort Wayne, an advocate with Fuerza Unida who attended the earlier protest at the facility in April, hearing detainee accounts was deeply affecting. She said even though she thought she was prepared for something inhumane, she still needed a few minutes to weep after hearing what detainees described. Her message to Indiana lawmakers is direct: go visit the prison and see what you are voting for.
Two men entered Miami Correctional this year and never came back out alive. Hundreds of protesters across 28 Indiana cities marched Saturday to make sure that fact does not quietly disappear. The questions surrounding conditions inside the facility, access to medical care, and the basic rights of civil immigration detainees are not fading away. As Indiana collects nearly four times what it normally earns per inmate under this federal deal, the people standing in the streets of Fort Wayne and across the state are asking something that no contract or press release can fully answer: at what point does a dollar amount stop mattering when lives are on the line? Share your thoughts in the comments below and let your community know where you stand on ICE detention in Indiana.
