Fox News Digital learned that ICE lodged a detainer with the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center the same day Brito was arrested.
Brito entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown date and location, according to DHS. He is a Guatemalan national.
“This criminal illegal alien from Guatemala is charged with hit-and-run after a drunk-driving accident that sent a 74-year-old woman to the hospital in critical condition in Miami-Dade County,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“He should have never been allowed in our communities or on our streets,” Mullin continued, adding, “ICE is asking officials in Miami-Dade County to cooperate with us and not release this criminal from jail, and to turn him over to ICE custody so we can remove him from our country.”
Mullin added that “thanks to the strong leadership of President Donald Trump, ICE is unleashed to go after criminal illegal aliens like this one so that we can make America safe again.”
A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department confirmed with Fox News Digital that the department had received ICE’s request and that Brito is currently in custody.
The spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “Miami-Dade County honors these detainer requests in accordance with the law by holding the individual for the authorized 48-hour period.”
The spokesperson said that “if ICE does not take custody of the individual within that timeframe, the individual is released as required by law.”
“Miami-Dade County and the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department comply with all applicable laws regarding immigration detainer requests and do not deny detainer requests submitted by federal authorities,” the spokesperson added.
NEW MAINE LAW LIMITS POLICE COOPERATION WITH FEDERAL IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS
US President President Donald Trump (C), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (not pictured) tour a migrant detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025. President Trump is visiting a migrant detention center in a reptile-infested Florida swamp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Trump will attend the opening of the 5,000-bed facility — located at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands — part of his expansion of deportations of undocumented migrants, his spokeswoman said. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) (Getty)
Miami-Dade County is not a sanctuary jurisdiction, and Florida law prohibits sanctuary policies. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office also participates in ICE’s 287(g) program under state law.
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Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, has previously criticized ICE’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center, which closed down this June. Upon the center’s closure, Cava released a statement alleging that “people, including some of our own residents,” had been “held there without meaningful due process.”
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She added that “immigrants helped build Miami-Dade County, and our community has always believed that public safety, the rule of law, and respect for human dignity can go hand in hand.”
