Florida Governor Ron DeSantis maintains that detainees at the notorious Alligator Alcatraz are treated appropriately and even provided with a complimentary flight back home. However, following their personal visit to the site, Democratic lawmakers in Washington are calling for its closure.
“This needs to be shut down now,” said U.S. Representative Kathy Castor (D-Tampa).
Representatives from Florida including Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson, Lois Frankel, Darren Soto, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Maxwell Frost, and Jared Moskowitz have introduced the “No Cages in the Everglades Act.” This proposed legislation aims to prevent the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement from creating or supporting detention facilities in or around the Everglades region.
“We want to cut off the funds, frankly, to make sure governors and states cannot abuse their power.”
The proposed legislation also aims to ensure congressional oversight by allowing access to all immigration detention centers and mandates a federal review into the facility to examine environmental impacts, the conditions of detainment, and financial implications.
Lawmakers back home in the Sunshine State are also standing behind those efforts, saying the facility was built under a 2023 emergency order by DeSantis and is now outdated.
“I think in this moment of crisis, there needs to be a lawsuit filed for emergency injunction to stop the Governor’s ability to weaponize this outdated executive order,” said State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando).
The site is also under fire for what lawmakers say are vanished contracts. Eskamania shared documents on X showing excessive pay and construction spending, which have been suddenly removed from public websites.
“When you start moving and taking things down off of websites and things of that nature, you know, all you’re doing is telling people that you know there is something that’s egregious that’s happening,” said State Sen. Shevrin Jones (D-Miami Gardens).
However, DeSantis and Republican state senators continue to defend the operation, saying critics are distorting the facts.
“They just object to the border being shut. They object to illegal aliens being removed from the United States, and so they’re trying to find pretext to basically camouflage the fact that they have a very unpopular position,” said DeSantis.
“This is a transitional facility to repatriate people back to their home of records, we can’t forget that these are illegal immigrants. There are people who opted to come here and the people at this facility, the vast majority have committed real crimes,” said State Sen. Jay Collins, (R-Tampa).
So, what’s next for state lawmakers?
Committee week starts in October, which means bill drafting opportunities will open in the coming weeks.
State Democrats say there could be legislation filed demanding more oversight.
