Insects and sewer water: the alleged conditions at 'Alligator Alcatraz'

People were divided politically when reports first emerged of the Trump administration's immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," with Democrats lambasting it as cruel and Republicans upholding it as a necessary space. But now that detainees have lived in the facility for several weeks, reports have circulated of alleged poor conditions, prompting some to raise the alarm.

Interviews with several news outlets have documented everything from insect infestations to widespread problems with plumbing. And new evidence has emerged that many of the detainees at Alligator Alcatraz may not even have a criminal record.

What are the alleged conditions at Alligator Alcatraz?

Detainees inside the facility, which gets its name from the alligator and snake-infested swamp surrounding it, say that "worms turn up in the food. Toilets don't flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects are everywhere," said The Associated Press. The open floor plan means that "rows of bunkbeds are surrounded by chain-link cages." Detainees allegedly go "days without showering or getting prescription medicine, and they are only able to speak by phone to lawyers and loved ones." Problems with the air conditioning are reportedly also common.

Alligator Alcatraz does not have permanent running water, meaning "drinking and bathing water has to be brought in several times a day, but is still in short supply," said The Washington Post. Combined with the swampy nature of the facility, this means that insects are a pervasive problem. Facility staffers are "issued a can of mosquito repellent their first day of work, but detainees are sprayed only when they arrive," which reportedly has minimal effect. Most detainees have "skin irritations from mosquitoes; they don't give us spray. All of us worry that we'll get a disease because of the mosquitoes," detainee Anderson Miranda told the Post. The mosquitoes "don't let you sleep," said detainee Juan Javier Gonzalez.

Some of the detainees facing these conditions may not even be accused of wrongdoing. "Hundreds of immigrants with no criminal charges in the United States are being held at Alligator Alcatraz," said an investigation by the Miami Herald. At least 250 people being held at the facility have "only immigration violations but no criminal or pending charges." This tracks with national figures, which showed "nearly half of detainees in ICE custody" nationwide did not have a "criminal conviction or charge."

What has the response been?

Local officials have denied these accounts of Alligator Alcatraz's conditions. The "reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false. The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order," said spokesperson Stephanie Hartman of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which built the facility, to the AP. Alligator Alcatraz is a "very professionally run facility," said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to WPTV-TV West Palm Beach. It's "South Florida. This is not the Four Seasons."

The beds at the facility are "better than my bed at home," Florida's Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia (R) said to The New York Times following a tour of Alligator Alcatraz. But congressional Democrats, several of whom also toured the facility, have said the reports of horrific conditions are accurate. When "those doors opened, what I saw made my heart sink," Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said to reporters. There were "32 people per cage, about six cages in the one tent." The administration "should not put humans in the middle of swampland in the Everglades: It's outrageous," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). "It's inhumane. It's unlawful."