Democrat Lawmaker Blasts 'Alligator Alcatraz' as 'Internment Camp'

Newsweek

7 hours ago

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Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, on Saturday toured the Everglades migrant detention site, known as "Alligator Alcatraz," and denounced the facility as an "internment camp."
"The conditions that we saw inside this internment camp—which it is nothing less than that description—were really appalling," Wasserman Schultz told reporters.
Newsweek has reached out to Wasserman Schultz's office by email outside of normal business hours on Saturday afternoon for comment.
Why It Matters
Florida's Democratic representatives have tried for weeks to gain access to the Everglades facility, which was hastily established at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and rapidly filled with detainees.
National scrutiny over the conditions of the facility have remained a significant focus amid ongoing controversies about the treatment of detainees, particularly migrants and non-citizen residents, at U.S. immigration facilities.
The center is part of the Trump administration's effort to crackdown on illegal immigration. President Donald Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, an initiative that has seen an intensification of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the country.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Republicans have touted the detention center as efficient despite concerns about the makeshift nature of the establishment, largely constructed of tents, trailers, and temporary buildings that flooded the day after Trump toured the facility.
The Everglades facility now holds an estimated 400 people, has drawn backlash from immigration, environmental and Indigenous groups and is facing a lawsuit from the group Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said during a press conference on Saturday that it is "held to the same standard that all federal facilities are."
Beds are seen inside a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, as President Donald Trump tours the facility in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1....
Beds are seen inside a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, as President Donald Trump tours the facility in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1. Inset: Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, is seen during a press conference after visiting "Alligator Alcatraz" on July 12 in Ochopee, Florida. More
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images //What To Know
Florida lawmakers on Saturday took a state-arranged tour of the facility after some were blocked earlier from viewing it due to the large number of Democrats and Republicans who turned up on Saturday morning.
The lawmakers were divided into multiple groups that toured the facility, and Wasserman Schultz told reporters ahead of her visit that lawmakers had arrived because they wanted to ask questions and get a sense of conditions even if they were not going to be allowed into the facility.
The congresswoman has remained a vocal opponent of the state's detention facilities, previously railing against the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida, telling Newsweek at that time that "there's just too many credible reports that people are not properly cared for there, and that's an understatement" and that it was "time to close this facility."
After her tour of the Everglades facility on Saturday, Wasserman Schultz called the facility an internment camp and described the conditions.
"Throughout this entire tour, it was repeated over and over that the state is working hand in glove with ICE," Wasserman Schultz said. "This facility was inspected by ICE. They review their detention standards. They are using cages. These detainees are living in cages. The pictures that you've seen don't do it justice."
She described the detention areas as "cages, wall-to-wall," that held 32 people per "cage," which contained only bunk beds and "three tiny toilets" that are a toilet and sink combined into a single unit.
"They get their drinking water, and they brush their teeth, where they poop, in the same unit," the congresswoman said, adding that officials "bragged that they went above standards, supposedly."
She described the shower facility as having "no privacy at all," with 900 men sharing the space and having only "small walls in each shower."
However, her greatest shock was reserved for the food provided to the detainees: The congresswoman said that when shown the "meal prep area," she saw that employees at the facility were fed "large pieces of roast chicken, large sausages," while detainees ate "small, gray turkey and cheese sandwiches and apple and chips, and that's it."
"We're talking about fully grown men being fed very small portions," she said.
What People Are Saying
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in an emailed statement to Newsweek regarding Wasserman Schultz's comments: "Beyond disgusting. The vilification of ICE must stop. This type of rhetoric directly contributes to ICE law enforcement facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults against them. Our brave law enforcement should be thanked for risking their lives every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens including gang members, murderers, and pedophiles."
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem previously wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for detention facilities across the country. It will provide DHS with the beds and space needed to safely detain the worst of the worst."
Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, wrote in a statement: "As President Trump doubled down on his agenda of fear and division, we're reminded that this cruel and inhumane stunt is part of a broader strategy to expand the abusive mass detention machine, and in turn, criminalize and disappear members of our communities. Building a prison-like facility on sacred indigenous land in the middle of the Everglades is a direct assault on humanity, dignity, indigenous sovereignty, and the constitutional protections we all share."
Representative Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat, wrote in a statement: "I've toured these facilities myself – real ones, not the makeshift tents they plan to put up – and even those detention centers contain conditions that are nothing short of human rights abuses. Places where people are forced to eat, sleep, shower, and defecate all in the same room. Places where medical attention is virtually non-existent. Anyone who supports this is a disgusting excuse for a human being, let alone a public servant."
What Happens Next?
While the Everglades facility is ostensibly established as a temporary response to the needs of the Trump administration's deportation effort, it remains unclear how long officials plan to continue using the facility, especially as national scrutiny continues to grow.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.