A Truck Hit Geraldine Byrd Twice Outside Her Own Gate. The Driver Ran — Miami-Dade Handed Him to ICE the Same Day.
Just before 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 2, Geraldine Byrd stopped her car on Lincoln Drive in southwest Miami-Dade County, steps from her own front gate, and got out to open it. A black pickup truck driven by Tomas Raymundo Brito hit the rear of her car, spinning it into her and knocking her down — then the truck rolled forward and hit her again, trapping her underneath.
Brito got out, left his truck sitting on top of her, and ran. A family member gave chase and found him hiding in a neighbor’s shed. Byrd, 74, remains on life support in critical condition. Neighbors describe a woman who sent birthday gifts to their children and greeted them daily despite a language barrier.
Brito, 31, told investigators he is from Guatemala and has no legal status in the United States. He faces two felony state charges. The same day he was booked, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer at the Miami-Dade jail — and, unlike in a number of jurisdictions this site has covered, the county held him for it. Brito is presumed innocent and has not yet entered a plea.
- 74 years old — Geraldine Byrd remains on life support in critical condition at Jackson South Medical Center — WPLG Local 10 / CBS News Miami
- Twice Brito's truck struck her twice in the same collision — first spinning her own car into her, then pinning her beneath the truck itself — Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office arrest report, via WPLG Local 10
- 5 beers the amount Brito admitted to drinking before getting behind the wheel, according to the arrest report — CBS News Miami
- Same day ICE lodged its detainer at the Miami-Dade jail the day Brito was booked, and the county — bound by Florida law — held him for it — Fox News Digital / DHS
Byrd was returning home from the Miccosukee Casino when she pulled over on Lincoln Drive, just east of Southwest 154th Avenue, to open the gate to her driveway. According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Brito was driving east on the same road when he hit the rear of her parked car. The impact spun her vehicle roughly 180 degrees clockwise, striking her and knocking her to the ground. The truck then continued forward and struck her again, trapping her underneath it.
Neighbor Kristina Diaz told Fox News Digital what the block sounded like in the moments after: “We could hear screaming, we could hear everybody yelling, ‘Where is she? Oh, she’s underneath the car. Call 911.’” Diaz said Byrd had known her family for years and “would always send my daughter gifts for her birthday. So, she was a very kind woman.” A second neighbor, Flor Ortiz, speaking in Spanish, told Fox News Digital: “We do not speak the same language, but we always greet each other. She is a good person.”
Byrd was airlifted to Jackson South Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. As of this writing she remains on life support in critical condition.
Brito did not stop to help or call for help. He got out of the truck — which was still resting on top of Byrd — and ran east on Lincoln Drive on foot. A family member of Byrd’s chased him down and tracked him to a shed at a nearby address, 15278 Lincoln Drive, where he was hiding. A witness flagged down Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies, who took Brito into custody there without incident.
Brito admitted to drinking approximately five beers before the crash, according to the arrest report, and told investigators he is a Guatemalan national with no lawful immigration status and no Florida driver’s license — he had never been issued one. He now faces two felony state charges: leaving the scene of a crash causing serious bodily injury, and driving without a license — an offense Florida elevates to a felony when the driver is unlawfully present and the crash causes serious injury. Bond was set at $7,500 on each count, $15,000combined. A Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office spokesman said additional charges, including DUI, remain possible pending toxicology results.
“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. He should have never been allowed in our communities or on our streets.”
Markwayne Mullin · Secretary of Homeland Security, statement to Fox News Digital
ICE lodged its detainer with the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center — Miami-Dade’s main jail — the same day Brito was booked, asking the county not to release him and to turn him over for removal proceedings instead. Miami-Dade complied, holding him for the standard 48-hour period the detainer statute authorizes. That outcome was not a given. Miami-Dade County is run by a Democratic mayor, and its cooperation with ICE was not always guaranteed either.
Florida has banned sanctuary policies statewide since 2019, and a 2025 state mandate went further, requiring every county jail — Miami-Dade included — to sign a formal 287(g) agreement authorizing local officers to hold and transport detainees for ICE. Miami-Dade Corrections Director Sherea Green signed the transport addendum on June 18, 2025, under that mandate. County spokesperson Natalia Jaramillo said at the time: “The Corrections Department signed the 287g addendum as state law requires the County to enter into a 287g agreement as well as applicable addendums.”
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) had already signed the underlying agreement before her own commission could vote on it, and she was direct about why when commissioners objected: “This is not something about which I have a choice. This is the law… It doesn’t mean it is the wish of this body.” It is the mechanism Levine Cava described as compelled, not chosen, that put Brito in ICE’s hands within hours of his arrest.
The county jail’s compliance is not the end of the local political story. The City of Miami, a separate municipal government inside Miami-Dade County with its own police department, has faced “mounting pressure” from immigration advocates to exit its own ICE partnership entirely, according to June 2026 reporting — the same category of cooperation agreement that made Sunday’s smooth handoff possible at the county jail. The tension is the same one Levine Cava named at that 2025 commission meeting: state law forces the cooperation; the political appetite for it, among Democratic officials and their base, is thinner.
Miami-Dade County Mayor: Daniella Levine Cava (D). Signed the 287(g) transport addendum in June 2025 under Florida’s state mandate and has said publicly the county had no legal choice in the matter.
Miami-Dade Corrections Director: Sherea Green. Signed the 287(g) addendum authorizing corrections officers to hold and transport ICE detainees, including Brito, out of the county jail system.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: Markwayne Mullin. Publicly credited the detainer to the Trump administration’s enforcement posture in his statement on this case.
Mullin was blunt about what he wants from Miami-Dade next: “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.” He 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.”
Geraldine Byrd was opening her own gate when a truck hit her twice and left her on life support. What happened next worked the way it is supposed to: an ICE detainer went in the same day, and a Democratic-run county held the man for it — not by choice, Mayor Levine Cava says, but because Florida law left no room for the alternative. Tomas Raymundo Brito is presumed innocent and has not yet entered a plea. The county that processed his detainer without incident is the same one whose mayor said, on the record, she would not have signed the agreement that made it possible if the law hadn’t forced her hand.
