Photojournalist arrested at Miami immigration protest, gear seized

Freelance photojournalist Dave Decker was arrested by Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies while documenting anti-deportation protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Miami, Florida, on Nov. 22, 2025. Decker was held in custody for more than 30 hours before being released on bond with two charges.

Decker was on assignment to cover the protest for multiple outlets: Creative Loafing Tampa, an alt-weekly newspaper; News2Share, a collective that sells footage to news outlets; and Zuma Press, an independent press agency.

The activist group Sunrise Movement organized the protest at the Krome North Service Processing Center. In a clip posted to the group’s Instagram, more than a dozen activists are seen sitting and standing in front of a gate into the facility while singing and holding signs.

Decker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had his National Press Photographers Association credentials and federal drone operator license around his neck and was photographing the protest. Once officers with the Miami-Dade Police and Florida Highway Patrol moved in, he began documenting the arrests of the protesters.

“It just felt normal to do the work of photojournalism and document from the sides, to document the detainments as they were happening,” Decker told Creative Loafing. He added that, without warning, an officer made eye contact with him and began placing him in flex cuffs.

“I said, ‘Hey officer, I’m a member of the press.’ They said, ‘You were warned, you’re getting arrested,’” he recounted. Decker was able to speak with a Highway Patrol sergeant and identified himself as a journalist yet again, but said it was to no avail.

“He said, ‘I don’t care about any of this.’ And he said, ‘You’re going to get arrested too,’” Decker said. “So he arrested me, and then he isolated me on another side of the road.”

In footage captured by Decker, the photojournalist can be heard saying, “Oh my gosh, I’m not with them.” An officer then responds, “OK. Well, you’re here,” to which Decker replies, “I’m working.” “Anybody that’s here,” the officer continues. “OK, I’m not fighting,” Decker says. “I’m on assignment.”

Decker told the alt-weekly that he eventually convinced the officers to put his camera and other gear in his car, which was then impounded, and his belongings inventoried.

The publication reported that Decker was among more than 30 individuals arrested outside the facility that day. According to court records reviewed by the Tracker, the photojournalist was charged the same as the protesters, with trespassing on property after a warning and resisting an officer without violence to his or her person.

Decker told the Tracker he was released sometime between 3-4 a.m. on Nov. 24 after paying a $1,000 bond. The photojournalist, who is based four hours away in Tampa, said he stayed with friends in town until the impound lot opened that morning, paying $600 to have his belongings released back to him.

He added that his car — inventoried by police as containing two cameras, a lens, four tripods, a camera flash, two external batteries and a drone — had been thoroughly searched in the process.

“It was all there, but they ransacked my car to do it. They turned my car upside down,” Decker said. He added that it wasn’t initially clear whether devices had been searched or suffered any damage.

Decker, who was held in custody for approximately 36 hours, said he was especially frustrated at the interference in his ability to work.

“News is only news for a couple of hours, when it’s breaking like that,” he told the Tracker. “I would say that there were no wires out there, there were no local people, there were no stand-ups, no TV, no helicopter. There was none of that there. So I was literally the only journalist out there.

“They effectively stopped the news from getting out. Talk about putting the brakes on press freedom,” Decker added.

Update: This article has been updated to include comment from Dave Decker and details from records shared with the Tracker.