Detainees at a remote immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades say there’s no water for bathing, bright lights that never turn off, and massive mosquitoes everywhere, according to multiple news reports.
The detention site, which Republicans have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” was hastily constructed in recent weeks and is touted by the Trump administration as a hyper-secure facility surrounded by alligators and snakes.
Reports from detainees and their family members detail a facility with abysmal living conditions and little access to counsel.
“There’s over 400 people here. There’s no water to take a bath, it’s been four days since I’ve taken a bath,” Leamsy La Figura, a Cuban musician and detainee who faces charges of aggravated assault, told CBS News Miami.
Multiple women similarly told The Miami Herald that their husbands, who are detainees at the facility, couldn’t shower for multiple days. Two women told the publication that there wasn’t water to flush the toilets when their husbands first arrived.
“The condition they’re going through, they’re horrible,” Eveling Ortiz, the girlfriend of a detainee named Vladimir Miranda, told NBC 6 South Florida. “They don’t have water, they can’t use the bathroom properly. They’re not taking a bath.”
La Figura also claimed the food was infested with bugs and large mosquitoes were prevalent.
“They only brought a meal once a day and it had maggots. They never take off the lights for 24 hours. The mosquitoes are as big as elephants,” he said. One of the women who spoke with the Herald said her husband had witnessed some of the largest mosquitoes he’d ever seen flying overhead.
Multiple detainees referenced bright lights that were on for 24 hours a day, as well as sweltering temperatures. Because it’s a temporary facility, experts have raised concerns about its ability to handle the oppressive heat in the region.
“I’m on the edge of losing my mind. I’ve gone three days without taking my medicine,” an unnamed detainee told CBS News Miami. “It’s impossible to sleep with this white light that’s on all day.” A DHS spokesperson posted on X, formerly Twitter, that one detainee had been transported to the hospital, though they were not admitted.
A spokeswoman for Florida’s Division of Emergency Management told The Miami Herald that the detainees’ allegations about the facility were “untrue.”
“Bugs and environmental factors are minimized in the facility, restraints are only utilized during transport outside of the detention centers, and visitation arrangements can be made upon request,” said Stephanie Hartman, the spokeswoman. “All plumbing systems are working and operational.”
DHS also countered these allegations in a statement on X suggesting that they were part of a “false narrative.”
Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a HuffPost request for comment.
In addition to the concerning physical conditions of the facility, at least one attorney has had difficulty reaching a client inside the detention site, The Herald reports. Ortiz also told NBC 6 South Florida that detainees weren’t able to access immigration attorneys.