'Help me!' Democrats decry 'vile' conditions at 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigrant prison

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Calling the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center in Florida's Everglades "vile," "inhumane" and "gross" while pledging to hold authorities accountable, Democratic members of Congress toured the facility July 12.

"People were yelling, 'Help me. Help me,'" said Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida. "I heard in the back someone say, 'I'm a U.S. citizen.'"

Frost said there are about 1,000 male detainees, mostly Hispanic, at the center. There are cells to house 3,000 detainees, and he said workers will soon add another 1,000 beds.

He said authorities told him Saturday the average stay will be two weeks before deportation.

"When those doors opened, what I saw made my heart sink," said Frost, 28, the first Millennial elected to Congress and the son of a Cuban immigrant. "I saw 32 people per cage, about six cages in the one tent. I saw a lot of people, young men who looked like me, and people who were my age."

The lawmakers weren't allowed to examine the cells or talk to the detainees, they said, observing them from the tent entry.

"As we were walking away, they started chanting, 'Libertad, Libertad. Freedom,'" Frost said.

Previously blocked from entering the detention center in Ochopee, about 75 miles west of Miami, Democrats from Congress and the Florida Legislature had a very different take from Republicans who toured more than 10 days ago.

The 39-acre compound targeting immigrants for deportation was constructed in eight days.

Republicans called the food "yummy," talked about how comfortable the detainees' beds were and said the facility met all the standards for detention centers.

The Democrats disagreed.

"They should not put humans in the middle of swampland in the Everglades: It's outrageous," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. "It's inhumane. It's unlawful."

Flooding and backed-up toilets

Frost spoke during a virtual call with the Naples Daily News, part of the Paste BN Network, and other news outlets: "We had planned to come unannounced to see this for what it really is and to see it not sanitized."

But their attempts were blocked, he said.

"Federal law requires allowing members of Congress in for unannounced visits," Wasserman Schultz said. "We're quite sure the state got wind of it and decided to set up this sham tour."

Frost said he's spoken with lawyers and the families of the detainees. "There's been flooding. There's been reports of toilets not working, backing up, feces being flooded inside cages that they are sleeping in. People not being allowed to shower."

Wasserman Schultz added that "detainees are forced to sleep all night with the lights on, they don't have access to counsel" then pointing out that it's a concern that "this facility infringes (on) different tribal lands."

'Gross' toilet tanks include drinking-water spigot

Frost detailed what he witnessed. "I was in the facility for about two hours, and what I saw were horrible conditions and cages," he said. "There are three toilets in each cage for the group of 32 people, and their drinking water comes from the toilet.

"There's a little spigot on top of the toilet, and that's where they drink their water as well. ... It's gross and it's disgusting, and this is where people are being held."

There 'will be hearings' Democrats pledge

"There will be accountability on this," Frost said.

Wasserman Schultz was more direct.

"This place needs to be shut the hell down," she said.

Contributing: J. Kyle Foster, Paste BN Network.

Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) grew up in Southwest Florida and has led Pulitzer Prize-winning efforts.