OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) — Democratic legislators have criticized Florida’s newly established Everglades immigration detention facility after a state-organized tour on Saturday, calling it overcrowded, unsanitary, and infested with insects. The center, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is viewed differently by a Republican who was also on the tour, who denied seeing any such issues.
The visit occurred following previous attempts by some Democrats to access the 3,000-bed detention center. This facility was swiftly constructed by the state on a remote airstrip amidst swampy terrain. The turnout of numerous state lawmakers and Congress members led to the formation of multiple groups to facilitate the tour.
“The conditions here are deeply troubling and vile, and this facility needs to be shut down immediately,” expressed U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, to the press following the tour. “It’s an apparent stunt, and the treatment of individuals here is unacceptable.”
Cage-style units of 32 men share three combination toilet-sink devices, the visitors measured the temperature at 83 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) in one area that was billed as air-conditioned and grasshoppers and other insects abound, she and other Democrats said.
Although the visitors said they weren’t able to speak with the detainees, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Florida, said one called out “I’m an American!” and others chanting, “Libertad!,” a Spanish word for “freedom.”
State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican from Florida, countered that he had seen a well-run, safe facility where the living quarters were clean and the air conditioning worked well. He recalled that a handful of detainees became “a little raucous” when the visitors appeared but said he didn’t make out what they were saying.
“The rhetoric coming out of the Democrats does not match the reality,” he said by phone. “It’s a detention center, not the Four Seasons.”
Journalists weren’t allowed on the tour, and lawmakers were instructed not to bring phones or cameras inside.
Messages seeking comment were sent to the state Division of Emergency Management, which built the facility, and to representatives for Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best highlighted one of Ingoglia’s upbeat readouts on social media.
DeSantis and fellow Republicans have touted the makeshift detention center — an agglomeration of tents, trailers and temporary buildings constructed in a matter of days — as an efficient and get-tough response to President Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations. The first detainees arrived July 3, after Trump toured and praised the facility.
Described as temporary, the detention center is meant to help the Republican president’s administration reach its goal of boosting the United States’ migrant detention capacity from 41,000 people to at least 100,000. The Florida facility’s remote location and its name — a nod to the notorious Alcatraz prison that once housed federal inmates in California — are meant to underscore a message of deterring illegal immigration.
Ahead of the facility’s opening, state officials said detainees would have access to medical care, consistent air conditioning, a recreation yard, attorneys and clergy members.
But detainees and their relatives and advocates have told The Associated Press that conditions are awful, with worm-infested food, toilets overflowing onto floors, mosquitoes buzzing around the fenced bunks, and air conditioners that sometimes shut off in the oppressive South Florida summer heat. One man told his wife that detainees go days without getting showers.
Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Stephanie Hartman called those descriptions “completely false,” saying detainees always get three meals a day, unlimited drinking water, showers and other necessities.
“The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order,” she said.
Five Democratic state lawmakers tried to visit the site when it opened July 3 but said they were denied access. The state subsequently arranged Saturday’s tour.
The lawmakers have sued over the denial, saying that DeSantis’ administration is impeding lawmakers’ oversight authority. A DeSantis spokesperson has called the lawsuit “dumb.”
As Democratic officials headed into the facility, they said they expected to be given a sanitized and limited view.
Wasserman Schultz told reporters the lawmakers came anyway because they wanted to ask questions and get a sense of the structure and conditions.
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Peltz reported from New York, and Rodriguez reported from Ochopee.
