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United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is quietly expanding its presence across the nation, including in South Florida, according to federal records obtained by Wired.
The documents show that ICE plans to open office space at One Riverview Square, an eight-story office building along the Miami River in downtown Miami at 333 S. Miami Ave. The building already houses ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), whose attorneys serve as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “exclusive representative in immigration removal proceedings.” It also holds an immigration court overseen by the Department of Justice. The Trump administration previously sought a ten-year lease for a “fully-finished and furnished office” in the Fort Lauderdale and Sunrise area for “administration operations for law enforcement.”
To carry out President Donald Trump’s lofty deportation goals, ICE says it has doubled in size in less than a year to 22,000 agents and officers, thanks to $75 billion in funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As a result, the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency that manages federal buildings and government real estate, has been tasked with finding office space to expand ICE’s nationwide footprint. In September, Wired reported, an “ICE surge team” comprised of GSA employees was tasked with finding office space for both OPLA and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, which is responsible for arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants.
Wired also found that GSA was told to bypass the Competition in Contracting Act’s competitive, open bidding requirements for federal building and lease procurement because ICE claimed the leases had “unusual and compelling urgency.”
A DHS spokesperson would not confirm with New Times whether a new ICE office would open at One Riverview Square in Miami.
“ICE will not confirm office locations as our officers are facing a coordinated campaign of violence against them including an 8,000 percent increase against them and a 1,300 percent increase in assaults against them,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to New Times. “Is it really news that when a federal agency hires more personnel, they need more space?”
The email ended with a collection of mugshots as examples of “some of the public safety threats arrested by ICE in Florida.”
The GSA leasing portal lists two active leases at One Riverview Square, one that began in 2019 and the other effective as of 2022. The portal lists the lessor as BEL BISCAYNE LLC. According to Florida Division of Corporations records, the entity is affiliated with Morgan Stanley. In 2008, investment firm Eaton Vance, which Morgan Stanley acquired in 2020, purchased One Riverview Square for $50 million.
Morgan Stanley did not respond to New Times‘ emailed request for comment.
