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The first flight is from Europe to Miami and the unconnected flight to Bahamas is three hours later.

Is it possible to check-in for the second flight without going through Immigration?

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No. All arriving passengers on international flights in US airports must pass through immigration -- no matter whether they have connecting flights or not.

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No, this is not possible. In many countries, you only go through immigration if your final destination is in that country. However, in the USA, you need to go through immigration at your point of entry, regardless of what other flights you're taking that day: it wouldn't matter if Miami was your destination, or if you were taking a connecting flight within the US or outside the US, on the same ticket or a different ticket.

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    "in many countries you only go through immigration when you reach your final destination": not quite. I know of no country where you can transfer from an international to a domestic flight without immigration control. I think you meant "in many countries you can transfer between international flights without going through immigration." Also, the US does have transit visas (C-1 being the garden-variety one, indeed the one indicated in Ana's circumstances), so your last paragraph is completely wrong.
    – phoog
    Commented Jan 13, 2017 at 14:44
  • @phoog Thanks for the correction on US transit visas. However, when I arrived at London Heathrow on an international flight earlier this week, I'm quite sure that my options were to either go straight to a connecting flight (if I had one) or to go through immigration. I don't recall any signs saying that I must go through immigration before getting on a domestic flight.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jan 13, 2017 at 14:48
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    Okay, so there's a country I don't know about perhaps. I've never taken a domestic flight in the UK. But if you didn't take a domestic flight, how do you know you wouldn't have gone through a different immigration checkpoint first? Had you been flying to Birmingham, for example, how would UKBA in Birmingham separate those passengers who had begun their trip in London from those who had transferred from an arriving international flight?
    – phoog
    Commented Jan 13, 2017 at 14:52
  • @phoog There are no flights from Heathrow to Birmingham so I'm off the hook, right? :-D No? Damn. It looks like I missed some signs. I just made up an itinerary from Munich to Leeds and Heathrow's website says "All passengers arriving on international flights must pass through UK border and immigration controls at Heathrow." Actually, "all passengers" is a lie because I then tried an international connection and it didn't tell me to go through passport control. Edited some more.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jan 13, 2017 at 15:06
  • LHR is special case where you have to go through a special immigration queue for domestic connecting flights, you then reenter the departure area, along with transit passengers. You immigration status is then verified at the domestic departure gate.
    – DTRT
    Commented Jan 13, 2017 at 23:26

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