A new Amnesty International report accuses Florida officials and the Trump administration of overseeing an immigration detention system that subjects migrants and asylum seekers to conditions constituting torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, and, in some instances, enforced disappearances.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and advocates have reported that the Everglades detention center is overcrowded, lacks privacy, and detainees are subjected to physical mistreatment, with guards cutting off phone access and detainees being beaten, pepper-sprayed, and held in direct sunlight without water.
Immigrants’ rights advocates have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s authority to detain people at the Alligator Alcatraz detention center, citing unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and arguing that the state is violating federal law by attempting to run its own immigration detention system.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced the opening of a second immigration detention facility, dubbed “Deportation Depot,” at the Baker Correctional Institution to hold up to 2,000 detainees, while a federal judge considers the future of the state’s controversial holding center for immigrants at the Everglades airstrip known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
A federal judge is deciding whether to close or keep open a detention site in the Everglades, which environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe claim violates the National Environmental Policy Act and threatens endangered species and tribal homelands.
The Trump administration has constructed a remote detention camp in the Everglades, known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, where immigrants are subjected to inhumane conditions, including lack of sleep, information, and medical care, and is pushing a federal megabill to expand state and local power to arrest, detain, and deport migrants.
Trump’s latest budget bill allocates $45 billion to ICE to build new detention centers and doubles immigrant detention capacity, while also increasing immigration-related fees and rolling back oversight mechanisms.