MIAMI _ When the immigration dragnet anticipated for Miami and eight other cities on Sunday failed to materialize by early morning, South Florida advocacy groups redirected their efforts from helping detainees to spreading information and awareness of immigrant rights.
They knocked on doors in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, canvassed churches and supermarkets, and worked to harness the emotional energy of expected raids into a sustained sense of preparedness.
In a Pompano Beach neighborhood about two miles from the Broward Transitional Center detention facility on North Powerline Road, volunteers with the New Florida Majority handed out "Know-Your-Rights" flyers and spoke with residents on their way to work or taking morning walks.
The left-leaning nonprofit, whose staff had also fanned out to Hialeah, Doral and Little Havana, informed immigrants on how to respond when interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement _ telling them not to open the door unless federal agents have a warrant signed by a judge.
"These moments are not just about fear," said Carlos Naranjo, an organizer with the left-leaning nonprofit group. "We're using this as a type of fuel to communicate to our community that there are many ways to defend ourselves ... We want to respond with love and unity."
Resident Michael Cruz was bicycling to work when Naranjo stopped him to offer tips on what to do if he were stopped by ICE agents. Cruz thanked him and asked for a few extra flyers in Spanish to share with his family.
Naranjo said that although they hadn't heard reports of ICE raids in the neighborhood on Sunday morning, residents in the area had reported regular patrolling in the recent weeks.
At the ICE central processing facility in Miramar, all was quiet. No agents were seen entering or leaving the building before sunrise, and only a single RV was stationed inside the fenced-in center.
Also quiet were hot lines set up by attorneys and others who had been anticipating the removal of thousands of immigrants with deportation orders. A few calls came in to the hotline advocates set up, but not to report ICE agents at doors.
"We got a one or two calls on our hotline with folks asking, 'Is there anything going on?'," said Melissa Taveras, of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
Taveras likened the mood across the network of activists, civil rights lawyers and immigrants to the anxiety before a big storms.
"It's the same feeling when you wonder, 'Did the hurricane start?'," she said. "It's the same stress." They had not received any calls from immigrants or their families seeking help Sunday morning.
Many advocates and attorneys had been awake before dawn, scouring social media and checking for messages on text or WhatsApp from clients or other colleagues.
The frantic morning they had anticipated did not come to pass.
"I hope that is a good sign," said Adonia Simpson, director of family defense for the nonprofit group Americans for Immigrant Justice. Simpson also works with the South Florida chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, or AILA, a voluntary group of attorneys and law professors.
The two groups had assembled a rapid response team of more than 50 attorneys ready to field calls and give advice to detained immigrants and their families, many of whom kept in touch and informed through group texts and social media.
In anticipation of ICE raids, advocacy groups and community activists mobilized to open private homes as shelters for those who felt threatened, staff hot lines and hand out leaflets reminding immigrants of their rights when ICE agents show up at their front door.
"I can't help but feel like we are waiting for the other shoe to drop," Simpson said. "Given the anxiety I have been feeling, I can only imagine the fear our immigrant communities feel this morning."
South Florida immigration attorney Sandy Pineda also hesitated to breath a sign of relief.
"It's still too early to tell," Pineda said.
Others were encouraged that no news was good news.
Tammy Fox-Isicoff, who sits on the board of AILA, told the Miami Herald she would "bet this whole thing is a total bust.
"When you think about it, this has to be optics," she said. "Who announces this before execution? Of course they have to expect people to run.
"Only Liam Neeson tells someone he's coming for them," Fox-Isicoff joked. "We all know he has a special set of skills."
For many, there was nothing special about Sunday beyond their weekly rituals.
At La Maison de La Parole, a predominantly Haitian-American church in a Pompano Beach shopping plaza that also includes Brazilian and Dominican businesses, congregants shuffled into the house of worship for the two-hour Sunday service. Outside, a volunteer handed out leaflets with immigrant rights information.
Wilna Francois, a member of the church, said she was thankful for the information, though she hadn't heard much talk about the raids.
"I heard something about it in the news," she said, "but I didn't know it was that serious, you know?"
Immigration sources said it's possible that ICE agents had not acquired the warrants necessary to carry out the removals.
The enforcement actions promised by President Trump have spread fear among immigrants in South Florida, with some families deciding to flee the state ahead of the expected crackdown.
In South Florida, many immigrants come from Central America, South America and the Caribbean, and they make up some of the largest numbers of people with removal orders in the country, according to the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review or EOIR.
Immigration reform advocates warned that ICE raids risked breaking up families and separating children from their parents. The EOIR shows Miami has one of the highest numbers of immigrant families facing deportation orders among the 10 cities targeted in Sunday's raids, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco.
The agency reported that more than 4,200 families in Miami had been ordered removed since September _ second to Houston, where about 5,000 families were adjudicated. Those with removal orders have been through court proceedings and either lost their cases or missed hearings.
Advocates report that many newly arrived immigrants in Miami have had trouble figuring out their court dates. Many facing deportation orders said they refused to leave their families, others were needed at work.
New York City and Atlanta also have many removal orders, though only New York reported that federal agents had attempted but failed to conduct raids in two neighborhoods on Saturday. ICE agents were rejected by people at the residences because they didn't have warrants, but planned to return, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In suburban Maryland outside Washington, D.C., an area with large numbers of immigrants, residents reported business as usual. Ditto for Atlanta, where residents reported seeing fewer day laborer vans and taxis _ signs that immigrants might be staying home to avoid ICE agents _ but no raids.
Sunday's enforcement sweep was telegraphed by President Donald Trump and anticipated by many South Florida politicians.
President Trump told reporters on Friday that the roundup would focus on criminals. He had announced a similar raid in June, but it was postponed. A raid planned for New Orleans on Sunday was called off as the region braced for Hurricane Barry to bring torrential rains and worsen flooding the city.
As word spread Friday about the raids, Democrats representing cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami denounced the plan. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat who plans to visit the detention center in Homestead on Monday with a group of lawmakers from the congressional Appropriations Committee, said ICE had been secretive about its plans.
"ICE staff in Miramar have apparently gone over to Immokalee and they're basically starting to stage to begin these raids," she said. "But I don't have any firsthand information."
Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, a Miami Republican, said ICE agents were meeting in the Collier County area of his district to prepare for the weekend raids. He declined to say whether he supports the enforcement sweep, calling it a consequence of a failed immigration system.
"Until we have a real fix of a system that is totally broken and has gotten worse, these things are going to continue to happen," he said.
