Lawmakers Visit 'Alligator Alcatraz' After Being Blocked

Democratic lawmakers are condemning Florida’s new Everglades immigration detention center after making a state-arranged visit.

OCHOPEE, Fla. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers condemned Florida’s new Everglades immigration detention center after a state-arranged visit Saturday, describing a crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested facility that officials have dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz.” A Republican on the same tour said he saw nothing of the sort.

The tour came after some Democrats were blocked earlier from viewing the 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. So many state legislators and members of Congress turned up Saturday that they were split into multiple groups to view the facility.

“There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” Rep. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, told reporters after visiting. “This place is a stunt, and they’re abusing human beings here.”

Cage-style units of 32 men share three combination toilet-sink devices, the visitors measured the temperature at 83 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) in one area that was billed as air-conditioned and grasshoppers and other insects abound, she and other Democrats said.

Although the visitors said they weren’t able to speak with the detainees, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Florida, said one called out “I’m an American!” and others chanting, “Libertad!,” a Spanish word for “freedom.”