Five Congress members and 20 state legislators inspected Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” and walked away with wildly different accounts of the facility’s conditions.
Politico reported that a mix of Republicans and Democrats were allowed to tour the detention center in the Everglades of Ochopee, Florida, on Saturday. A group of Democratic lawmakers was previously denied entry and sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for access, FOX 4 reported.
They were none too impressed.
Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz ripped the facility as an “internment camp” in a press conference following the tour. Yet Republicans claimed that her reaction “does not match the reality.”
“They are essentially packed into cages, wall to wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,” Shultz said. “The conditions we saw in this internment camp—that’s what it is and nothing less than that description—were appalling.”
Commenting on the smell in the tent facility—which costs $450 million a year to operate and was reportedly assembled in eight days, Newsweek reported—Shultz added that detainees are forced to “get their drinking water” and “brush their teeth where they poop.”
Shultz alongside Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost and Jared Moskowitz alleged that they got a “sanitized” tour and were not allowed to speak with detainees directly about their experiences.
However, GOP state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, an ally of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a MAGA convert, defended the facility as “clean, air-conditioned, and well-kept.”
Ingoglia added that lawmakers would be allowed to talk to detainees if they request to do so at least 48 hours in advance. “The rhetoric does not match the reality. It’s basically all political theater coming from the [Democrats]. What they’re saying is pure bullshit,” he said.
Republican state Sen. Jay Collins, a shoo-in to be Florida’s next lieutenant governor, also defended the facility, noting that there were backup generators and calling the setup “above and beyond.”
“This is one of several stops along the way for people who are detained by ICE as they go back to their country of origin,” Collins said.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary said during a Saturday press conference that five other states are in “ongoing conversations” to develop their own versions of “Alligator Alcatraz,” Newsweek reported.
Before the arrival of detainees, Noem led President Donald Trump and DeSantis on a tour of the detention center, which will reportedly have a capacity of around 3,000 beds when fully operational.
Noem praised DeSantis as a shining example of how states can partner with the DHS on deportation operations.
“We’ve had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us as well,” she said. “I would challenge some Democrats to start taking care of your states, partner with us in a way to make your community safer.”
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