Alligator Alcatraz (Florida)
Alligator Alcatraz (Florida)
Embedded Files
Location: Former Dade-Collier Training & Transition Airport, Cypress National Preserve, Ochopee, FL
Coordinates: 25°51′42″N 080°53′49″W
Opened: July 3, 2025
Sign leading to the entrance of Alligator Auschwitz
Trump, DeSatan, & Noem gleeful over their first concentration camp
via @annaforflorida/TikTok
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (DeSatan) invoked a standing 2023 immigration "state of emergency" to seize the county-owned airfield, fast-tracked the construction having it built in 8 days, questioning the proper codes and enforcement in its infrastructure.
Those who are posed to be located in this location are placed in party tents supplied by Sun Belt, which are enclosing the bunk beds that are surrounded by standing gates. These gates are on the INSIDE of the tents.
Infringing on protected lands, there are multiple action groups who have attempted to fight back on this, going so far as to even sue the government. Surrounding the residing location of this concentration camp are the dangers of the Everglades, the once honored piece of land for Floridians now turned death trap.
Companies Aiding Alligator Auschwitz
❌CDR Maguire & CDR Health
❌Duart & Vidal-Duart
❌IRG Global, an offshoot of ARS Global Emergency Management
❌ARSGEM
❌Doodie Calls
❌GardaWorld (Cash)
❌Garner Enviornmental Services
❌Gothams LLC
❌Granny's Alliance
❌Longview International Technical Solutions
❌SLSCO Ltd
❌Kona Ice
❌Churromania
❌Elote Lovers
❌Ms. Cheezious
Mentioned Conditions
Lack of Access to Fresh Water
"There's no water to take a bath" (CBSMiami)
"...initially there was no water to flush toilets" (MiamiHerald)
Inadequate Food
"...only brought a meal once a day and it had maggots" (CBSMiami)
Denial of Rights
"A lot of us have our residency documents and we don't understand why we're here." (CBSMiami)
"I'm on the edge of losing my mind. I've gone three days without taking my medicine." (CBSMiami)
"They took the Bible I had and they said here there is no right to religion. And my Bible is the one thing that keeps my faith, and now I'm losing my faith." (CBSMiami)
Unsanitary
"...initially there was no water to flush toilets" (MiamiHerald)
"...grasshoppers the size of his hand were springing into the tent and that the biggest mosquitoes he had ever seen were flying over them in their cells" (MiamiHerald)
Mentality
"...the lights are on inside the facility 24 hours a day" (MiamiHerald)
"...the “air is hot” inside the tent" (MiamiHerald)
Alligator Alcatraz Hunger Strike 10 Days In
Alligator Alcatraz Hunger Strike 10 Days In
August 2, 2025
Those detained within the camp known as Alligator Alcatraz are going on their tenth day of refusing to eat, protesting against the dangerous and inhumane conditions that they are exposed and subjected to.
Pedro Hernandez is one such person who spoke to NBC's SkyNews.
He said: "We've all been hungry since Tuesday. I'm not going to eat another plate of food until they show us respect."
The hunger strike has prompted outrage from his wife and community members. On Thursday night, Democratic leaders held an emergency town hall in Coconut Grove demanding reform and accountability.
“Florida has struck an unholy bargain with the Trump administration,” one speaker said. “People are not getting food, hygiene, or medical care. These conditions are substandard and cause irreparable harm.”
“Since my life no longer belongs to me, it’s up to them to decide whether I live or die,” detainee Pedro Lorenzo Concepción, 44, told El País from inside the facility.
On July 22, he went on hunger strike and has collapsed multiple times inside Alligator Alcatraz. During the strike, he was taken to Miami’s Kendall Hospital, according to his family, where he said he sat in handcuffs as doctors tried to get him to eat, but he refused.
Concepción, who said he was shackled and left on a floor at Alligator Alcatraz for more than 10 hours upon his arrival, is not the only one to complain of alleged poor conditions at the facility, which federal officials say they plan to support with millions in reimbursement funds and use as a model for future detention centers.
Second Class-Action Lawsuit Against Alligator Alcatraz
Second Class-Action Lawsuit Against Alligator Alcatraz
July 29, 2025
A group of attorneys bringing a class-action lawsuit against Alligator Alcatraz said detainees at the Florida facility have been denied the ability to meet with legal representation and that lawyers have been unable to contact their clients or find the proper venue to contest their detentions in court. The class-action complaint is the second lawsuit filed against Alligator Alcatraz after a coalition of environmental groups sued in June to block its construction.
The immigration attorneys argued in federal court yesterday that the conditions at the facility were an “emergency situation,” The Associated Press reported. The complaint, filed July 16, includes statements from several attorneys who said they had been unable to locate their clients after they were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including the ICE’s detainee locator still did not show that their clients were being held at Alligator Alcatraz. In several cases, lawyers drove to the facility, located deep in the Florida Everglades, to attempt an in-person visit, only to be turned away.
“Officers at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ are going around trying to force people to sign deportation orders without the ability to speak to counsel,” said Eunice Cho, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
In several cases, messages sent to an email address given to them at the facility went undelivered, and inquiries on how to contact clients went unanswered. One lawyer received confirmation for a one-hour virtual visit at an unspecified time, only for it to be canceled, the complaint said.
“Attorneys have thus had to go through extreme measures to try and find any information to make contact with clients,” the complaint reads.
Nicholas Meros, a lawyer representing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), said in federal court Monday that the facility has since allowed attorneys to make in-person visits and set up video conference rooms where detainees can make calls.
The civil rights attorneys also said in their complaint that they had been unable to determine where to file motions to request a bond hearing for their clients. While the Department of Justice maintains a list of the detention centers supervised by individual immigration courts, Alligator Alcatraz does not appear on the list.
“The government has further made it virtually impossible for detainees, or their counsel, to file documents required to contest their detention with the immigration court,” they wrote. “As a result, detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz effectively have no way to contest their detention.
At a news conference in Panama City Beach on Monday, DeSantis said he hoped the pace of deportations picked up at the facility.
“The reality is, if you don’t support sending somebody back to their own country who came in illegally and has already been ordered that they’re violating the law and ordered to be removed, if you don’t support that, then you are for an open border,” DeSantis said. “I reject that. That is not how a country can operate.”
Judge Rodolfo Ruiz asked the civil rights attorneys to refile their complaint to consolidate their pleadings as a request for a preliminary injunction, and he set a briefing schedule that will end with an in-person court hearing on Aug. 18.
Deportation Flights Have Begun at Alligator Alcatraz
Deportation Flights Have Begun at Alligator Alcatraz
July 25, 2025
Deportation flights from the remote Everglades immigration lockup known as "Alligator Alcatraz ″ began in the past few days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday. Officials said that two or three flights have departed from the site so far, but they didn’t say where those flights headed.
The flights operated by the Department of Homeland Security have transferred about 100 detainees from the immigration detention center to other countries, said DeSantis, who expects that number to increase soon.
“We’ve had two or three removal flights, and we’ll continue to have those removal flights. Up to 100 individuals who were illegally present in the state of Florida have already been removed from the United States,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Garrett J. Ripa said.
The White House has delighted in the area’s remoteness — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Miami — and the fact that it is teeming with pythons and alligators. It hopes to convey a message to detainees and the rest of the world that repercussions will be severe if the immigration laws of the United States are not followed.
The governor on Friday lauded the facility as deportation flights began:
“Hey, this is our moment,” DeSantis said. “This is what we all campaigned on. Let’s get it done … Florida is playing the leading role amongst the 50 states, and I don’t think there is anyone close to what we have done.”
It currently holds about 2,000 people, with the potential to double the capacity, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said today.
15-year old Kept in Alligator Auschwitz is NOT an Accident
15-year old Kept in Alligator Auschwitz is NOT an Accident
July 17, 2025
This is not accidental. You do not accidentally place a minor into a place like this.
The attorney of a detainee at the migrant detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” said she has no way of speaking to her client, adding that a 15-year-old boy spent several days at the facility that is currently under scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers.
"Very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet," Trump said July 1 after touring the rapidly constructed site surrounded by wetlands. The first detainees arrived the next day. But within two weeks of the facility’s opening, early reports found that people with criminal convictions made up a fraction of the early Alligator Alcatraz detainees.
The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times found that of the more than 700 people detained, more than 250 people have no criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S. One third — or about 233 people — have criminal convictions, the report said. While some of those convictions are for violent offenses such as attempted murder, not all are; charges include traffic violations and illegal reentry, the Herald/Times reported. Following these reports, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told PolitiFact that the absence of a U.S. criminal record is "irrelevant" because she said many migrants in the U.S. illegally face charges of crimes including rape, assault and terrorism in their native countries or other countries. On July 16, days after the first media investigations about sparse criminal backgrounds among the population were published, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., characterized the migrants at Alligator Alcatraz as "military-age males, and a lot of them have criminal records."
Speaking with 7News on Saturday, Katie Blankenship said she tried to visit her client at the facility, located in the middle of the Florida Everglades, on Thursday.
“We have been unable to get anybody from [United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or the state to contact us to say [my client] is represented, he has credible fear. We need to be able to see him and make sure the process is flagged for the asylum office,” she said.
Blankenship said one of the people she was trying to see was a 15-year-old boy who, to her knowledge, doesn’t have a criminal history. Blankenship said the teen spent three to four days here in the Everglades and has been moved to a youth facility but is still under ICE detention, trying to fight his immigration case. Blankenship said she’s concerned because she hasn’t been able to properly represent her client, adding she also hasn’t been able to speak or see the other people, either.
“This is how black this hole is for attorneys. I have no idea whether they’re going to be able to show up in court, what court they’re going to be heard in, how I even present myself as their lawyer in court,” she said. “After I went on Thursday. all of my guys disappeared from the ICE locator, overnight.”
"The WORST OF THE WORST are being deported and sent to places like Alligator Alcatraz, including Roberto Mosquera-Del Peral who was convicted of homicide and a member of the Latin Kings," read one Florida GOP X post. The Florida GOP X account pushed 11 different versions of these promotional images, garnering thousands of views. None of those people, including Mosquera-Del Peral, were on the list of detainees reported by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times. PolitiFact contacted the Florida GOP and asked for information showing these people were at Alligator Alcatraz and received no response.
July 14, 2025 Update
July 14, 2025 Update
Florida lawmakers have finally been granted entrance to Alligator Auschwitz after being illegally denied entry to the facility on July 3, 2025 and the lawmakers suing DeSantis and the head of Florida’s emergency management agency, Kevin Guthrie.
“Just hours before we were denied entry, they allowed the president of the United States and Fox News to basically run a propaganda video about how wonderful this site is, but that is not what we’re hearing on the ground,” state senator Carlos Guillermo Smith said.
Journalists were not allowed on the tour, and lawmakers were instructed not to bring phones or cameras inside. On the tour, the lawmakers said they were not allowed to visit areas where migrants are currently being detained but instead were shown cells not yet being used. They were also not permitted to view the medical facilities, with officials citing HIPAA laws, despite lawmakers being allowed to examine the medical facilities at other detention facilities. Here are a few of the statements made by the lawmakers upon visiting the camp:
“There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, told reporters after visiting the agglomeration of tents, trailers and temporary buildings. “This place is a stunt, and they’re abusing human beings here.” (ActionNews5)
“They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District, said during a news conference following their tour. (CNN)
“It’s a huge cleanliness concern,” he said. “It’s the same unit where people are shitting, and if you really need to drink water you have to wait until somebody’s finished using the bathroom.” He added that detainees were guarded by private security staff from a “hodgepodge” of companies. “It’s a huge source of taxpayer money, just going to corporations. But also what worries me is these people do not have the training you need to run a facility like this,” he said. (TheGuardian)
Although the visitors said they were not able to speak with the detainees, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, also a Democrat, said one called out “I’m an American citizen!” and others chanted “Libertad!,” Spanish for “freedom.” (ActionNews5)
State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican from Florida, countered that he had seen a well-run, safe facility where the living quarters were clean and the air conditioning worked well. (ActionNews5)
State Sen. Jay Collins was in another group and said he also found the detention center to be clean and functioning well: “No squalor.” (ActionNews5)
Across the state in Tampa, federal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that of the Everglades detention center that “any issues that were there have been addressed.” This makes sense considering they made the lawmakers wait days before being authorized entry. Authorities have refused to release a public list of those sent there by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE).
According to the Miami Herald:
Mixed among the detainees accused and convicted of crimes are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States. The data is based on a list of more than 700 people who are either being held under tents and in chain link cells at Florida’s pop-up detention center in the Everglades or appear slated for transfer there. A third of the detainees have criminal convictions. Their charges range from attempted murder to illegal re-entry to traffic violations. Hundreds of others only have pending charges. The records do not disclose the nature of the alleged offenses, and reporters have not independently examined each individual’s case... Reporters sent the list to officials at the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the absence of a criminal charge in the United States doesn’t mean migrants detained at the site have clean hands.
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