COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – After a guided tour on Saturday, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz described the conditions at the Alligator Alcatraz, a detention center for undocumented migrants in the Florida Everglades, as egregious, disgusting, and disturbing.
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Wasserman Schultz -- who was with U.S. Reps. Darren Soto, Maxwell Frost, and Jared Moskowitz, and a group of state lawmakers -- said there were 32 detainees per cage in tents at the remote Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
“This is an appalling, outrageous environment to detain anyone,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Inside the cages, Wasserman Schultz said the 32 detainees had bunk beds and access to just three “tiny” toilet-sink units that were lined up in a row behind one partition.
Frost said he was concerned about the cages not being clean, the toilets getting backed up, and feces on the floor, but he wasn’t allowed to see the toilets in the occupied cages.
“They essentially get their drinking water and they brush their teeth where they poop,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Wasserman Schultz said they learned that there were 900 men in custody at the facility and they were all in the final stages of deportation, but they were not allowed to talk to any of them.
“What we saw during our inspection today was a political stunt -- dangerous and wasteful,” Soto said. “Evidence of flooding, floors that are only about 8 inches above the ground.”
The lawmakers said their walk through the facility’s meal-prep area also raised concerns.
“We are talking about fully grown men being fed very small portions,” Wasserman Schultz said after describing the detainees’ lunch as a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple, and chips.
Meanwhile, the facility’s employees were getting roasted chicken and large sausages, which were more similar to the lunches served at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County, according to Wasserman Schultz.
Wasserman Schultz said she was also concerned about the heat that detainees were having to endure, so she brought a manual thermostat to the guided tour.
“In the medical intake area, it was 85 degrees. This is inside the so-called air-conditioned tent,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Frost said they were not allowed to tour the medical areas, which he had toured without a problem in other facilities.
“Every Floridian should be ashamed that our taxpayer money is being used to put people in these cages,” Frost said.
The guided tour was possible after Florida Rep. Ashley Gantt filed a lawsuit against DeSantis after five Democratic state lawmakers were denied access to the facility on July 3.
“They kept state legislators trying to claim it’s a federal facility," Frost said.
DeSantis paved the way for the facility when he declared a state of emergency in Florida in 2023 that equated the arrival of undocumented migrants to “a major disaster.”
Texas-based IRG Global Emergency Management is a contractor working with Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, at the detention center. The company was associated with Access Restoration Services US, Inc.
“This place is loaded with third-party private security officers,” Frost said. “This is not completely being run by federal agents or federal officers, not even state folks. Most of them are around the perimeter.”
An aerial view showed a white trailer with an FDEM sign. There was a Cheney Bros, Inc., trailer and a yellow Penske cargo van parked near the rows of tents. Soto said what he saw was wasteful, and water had to be trucked into the facility.
“It probably cost double the amount to put this facility here versus right by Krome,” Soto said.
This is a developing story.
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