On July 12, a group of Democratic lawmakers held a press conference following their tour of the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades. The press conference, featuring Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), and Darren Soto (FL-9), painted a disturbing picture of conditions inside what lawmakers described as an “internment camp” housing nearly 1,000 detained immigrants.
Cameras brought by the elected officials were confiscated before the tour.
Rep. Wasserman Schultz opened the press conference by explaining the facility’s origins: “We were directly told that the state was asked by the Department of Homeland Security to create a facility to detain ICE detainees. The governor decided directly. The governor directed FDEM, Florida Division of Emergency Management, to put that facility they were requested to create by DHS here.”
The facility was built in just eight days 45 minutes west of Miami.
“They decided to put it in the middle of the most brutal conditions, in the middle of a swamp in the Everglades,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Let’s be clear throughout this entire tour, it was repeated over and over that the state is working hand in glove with ICE. This facility was inspected by ICE. They review their detention standards.”
She said they were “not given a single reason why they chose this location, not by the governor, not by the and water has to be trucked into this facility.”
The most shocking revelation was the housing arrangement: detainees are “living in cages” with “32 detainees per cage”. Wasserman Schultz emphasized that “the pictures that you’ve seen don’t do it justice. They are essentially packed into cages, wall to wall, humans.”
As Wasserman Schultz described: “The only thing inside those cages are their bunk beds, and there are three tiny toilets that are toilet units that have a sink attached to it. So they essentially drink, they get their drinking water, and they brush their teeth where they poop in the same unit.”
The lawmakers reported that there is “a three-foot privacy wall that stretches the length inside the 32 detainee cage, a three-foot privacy wall that stretches the length of the three toilets in a row.”
“The showers provide no privacy at all. There are no curtains on it. It’s a big open shower unit,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Rep. Frost noted that “some of the biggest complaints we’ve heard is, yes, there’s three toilets, but a lot of the time only one is working, and they get backed up, feces being spread everywhere.”
Wasserman Schultz brought a manual thermometer and measured “85 degrees” in the medical intake area and “83 degrees” at the entrance to the detention area, “without being all the way in with all of the bodies that were living inside.” These temperatures were recorded in areas that were supposedly air-conditioned.
In the kitchen area, lawmakers observed “large pieces of roast chicken, large sausages” being prepared for employees, while “the detainees’ lunches were a small, you know, gray turkey and cheese sandwich and apple and chips, and that’s it.”
“I’m talking we’re talking about fully grown men being fed very small portions… I don’t see how a grown man, a large grown man at that… could possibly sustain them nutritionally,” Wasserman Schultz said.
The facility was built without proper environmental permits despite being located in the sensitive Everglades ecosystem. The lawmakers reported that “they have dug out reclaimed environmental areas and dumped fill on top of them.”
“Water has to be trucked into this facility. No running pipes. It makes no sense that this is here,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Despite restrictions preventing direct communication with detainees, lawmakers heard desperate pleas for help. Rep. Frost reported: “We saw people, of course, yelling for help. We even heard in the background someone yell, ‘I’m an American citizen.’”
As the lawmakers departed, detainees began chanting: “They started chanting, ‘Libertad, libertad, libertad’, freedom”. One detainee reportedly called out, “that he was poisoned by Clorox in the water, and he was in the hospital for four days.”
“Now, we were told that there was no one who was hospitalized overnight, so maybe he was referring to the medical clinic here. But I mean, there are really disturbing, vile conditions and and this is this place needs to be shut The hell down. It needs To be shut down,” Wasserman Schultz said.
The lawmakers characterized the entire facility as a cruel political stunt. Rep. Soto stated: “This is a total cruel political stunt meant to have a spectacle of political theater, and it’s wasting taxpayer dollars.”
“This facility exists just for purposes of it being a spectacle, right? This is a, this is for show,” Rep. Frost said. “This is (Gov.) DeSantis and Trump chest thumping to try to make sure that they can send a message that they are the, you know, the biggest, baddest, nastiest overseers.”
The facility is extraordinarily expensive to operate, with an estimated annual cost of $450 million. Rep. Soto noted that “it probably cost double the amount to put this facility here versus right by Krome”, the existing nearby detention center.
Republican State Senator Blaise Ingoglia stated: “The rhetoric coming out of the Democrats does not match the reality. It’s actually a very well-run facility. The idea that the detainees are in there and they’re in squalid conditions is just not accurate.”
Ingoglia relayed that the food detainees were given smelled “good.”
Last week CBS News reported a lack of access to water for bathing at Alligator Alcatraz, with some reporting they have gone four days without a shower. Food is described as scarce, unsanitary, and sometimes infested with maggots or worms.
Reports describe detainees packed into chain-link cages with bunk beds, three toilets per cage, and floors flooding with fecal waste due to malfunctioning plumbing. Mosquitoes, crickets, and other insects are prevalent throughout the facility.
Detainees claim denial of religious rights, including confiscation of Bibles, and lack of access to necessary medical care and prescription medication. Some say they are being psychologically pressured to sign self-deportation papers.
When asked directly about comparing the facility to a concentration camp, Wasserman Schultz was careful to avoid Holocaust comparisons while emphasizing the severity: “It is as bad as it can be, but it is not a concentration camp, and people should not use Holocaust references to describe what’s going on behind us.”
However, she consistently used the term “internment camp” throughout the press conference, drawing comparisons to Japanese American internment during World War II.
Japanese Americans were put in internment camps during World War II primarily due to wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7, 1941.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, authorizing the military to exclude anyone from designated military areas, which led to the forced removal and incarceration of over 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, from their homes, businesses, and communities.
Families were forced to live in cramped, tar-papered army-style barracks, often with multiple families sharing a single room. These barracks were sparsely furnished, typically with only cots, a coal-burning stove, and a single light bulb. There was no running water or private kitchen facilities.
Privacy was minimal. Communal bathrooms and showers lacked partitions, and daily routines like eating, bathing, and toileting took place in shared facilities, often requiring long waits.
Camps were often located in remote, desolate areas with extreme weather. Summers brought blistering heat and dust storms, while winters could be bitterly cold, sometimes dropping to 30 degrees below zero. Dust was pervasive, infiltrating living quarters, mess halls, and laundry rooms. Insects and other pests were common, compounding the discomfort.
Food was served in large mess halls and was often bland, limited in variety, and nutritionally inadequate. The government allocated a budget of just 45 cents per person per day for food. There were instances of food poisoning and malnutrition.
The comparison to Hitler’s regime in Germany is not far-fetched with looking at the first concentration camp, Dachau.
Established on March 22, 1933, just weeks after Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor, Dachau was officially described by military leader Heinrich Himmler as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.” The facility was designed to hold up to 5,000 prisoners.
The first prisoner transport arrived on March 22, 1933, consisting primarily of 100 Communist prisoners held in “protective custody”. The establishment of Dachau marked the beginning of the Nazi regime’s systematic persecution of political opponents and would serve as the prototype for the entire Nazi concentration camp system.
Dachau consisted of 32 barracks, each intended for 200 prisoners but often packed with over 1,600 during the final months. Prisoners slept on wooden bunks in cramped, unsanitary conditions. Barracks were sparsely furnished, with only basic bedding and a coal stove. The camp was surrounded by electrified barbed wire, a ditch, and seven guard towers, making escape nearly impossible.
Sanitation facilities were communal, and privacy was nonexistent. Prisoners used shared toilets and showers, often with insufficient water and hygiene supplies.
Overcrowding led to filthy conditions, with inadequate sewage and rampant infestations of lice and fleas. Typhus epidemics swept the camp, killing thousands in a matter of months. Food rations were meager and nutritionally inadequate. Malnutrition was widespread, and many prisoners died from starvation or related illnesses. Medical care was grossly insufficient. Many prisoners suffered from untreated diseases, and the sick were often left to die.
Wasserman Schultz said about 900 detainees are currently at Alligator Alcatraz. The facility is designed to hold 3,000 detainees, with the potential to expand to 5,000.
A recent ruling on racial profiling in Los Angeles showcased the conditions immigrants are facing in Los Angeles.
Judge Frimpong found that as of June 20, over 300 individuals were being held in cramped, unsanitary conditions, often without access to food and fresh water for extended periods. Some detainees reportedly were so thirsty they had been drinking from toilets.
Despite its intended use as a short-term holding area, the B-18 facility has routinely held people far beyond the 12-hour guideline. Reports from legal advocates and court findings indicate that many detainees have been kept for days at a time, with little to no access to basic necessities. Overcrowding has become the norm, with detainees forced to sleep on concrete floors or benches due to a lack of beds or mats.
