Photojournalist Arrested While Documenting Protest Outside Miami Immigration Facility

MIAMI — A freelance photojournalist was arrested and held in custody for more than 30 hours while documenting an anti-deportation protest outside a federal immigration facility in Miami, according to court records and published accounts.

Dave Decker was taken into custody Saturday, 22 November, by Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies outside the Krome North Service Processing Center. He was released on a $500 bond shortly after midnight Monday, 24 November. According to court records, Decker was charged with trespassing and resisting an officer without violence.

Decker said he was on assignment covering the demonstration for multiple outlets, including the alt-weekly newspaper Creative Loafing Tampa, the News2Share footage collective and Zuma Press. He stated he was wearing credentials from the National Press Photographers Association at the time of his arrest.

The protest, organized by the activist group Sunrise Movement, involved more than a dozen demonstrators blocking a gate to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility while singing and holding signs.

Decker told Creative Loafing that he was photographing officers from the Miami-Dade Police and Florida Highway Patrol as they began detaining protesters. He said he was documenting the arrests from the side when an officer approached him without warning and placed him in flex cuffs.

“I said, ‘Hey officer, I’m a member of the press.’ They said, ‘You were warned, you’re getting arrested,’” Decker recounted.

Decker said he identified himself as a journalist to a Highway Patrol sergeant but was told, “I don’t care about any of this.”

In video footage captured by Decker during the incident, the photojournalist can be heard telling officers, “I’m not with them” and “I’m working.” An officer responds, “OK. Well, you’re here.”

Decker was among more than 30 individuals arrested at the facility that day. He told the outlet that while he convinced officers to place his gear in his car, the vehicle was impounded and his camera remains in custody.

Decker was not immediately available for comment following his release. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched

In September, Decker was shot in the lower legs with pepper balls by federal officers and one of his camera lenses damaged while covering protests outside an ICE facility in a Chicago suburb, according to the Free Press.