Florida Democrats describe ‘appalling’ conditions after Alligator Alcatraz tour; Republicans say it’s ‘very well run’
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz with Congressman Jared Moskowitz and Congressman Maxwell Frost behind her talk to the media after they toured the Alligator Alcatraz facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on Tamiami Trail E, Ochopee, on Saturday, June 12, 2025. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Shira Moulten, and Mike Stocker
PUBLISHED: July 12, 2025 at 3:32 PM EDT
Dozens of men packed into cages, sometimes sharing one functioning toilet. Temperatures reaching the mid-80s. Bugs covering the beds. Detainees crying out to lawmakers for help, one saying he was a citizen.
Several Florida Democratic lawmakers described “appalling” conditions after emerging from their prepared tour of the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention facility in Florida’s Everglades on Saturday afternoon, days after they had arrived unannounced and been denied access. Meanwhile, Republican State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia said the facility surpassed expectations and the “squalid” conditions reported to the media were not an accurate representation.
The lawmakers gathered in a tent outside of the facility about 2:30 p.m., following their arrivals late Saturday morning. So many lawmakers arrived that they had to tour in groups.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters she saw cages with 32 men per cage, sharing three toilets as part of a unit with a sink, where they also get their drinking water. Inside of the cages was a three-foot “privacy wall.” The showers had no curtains.
“They are essentially packed into cages,” she said. “Wall-to-wall humans.”
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