Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, confirmed that 14 Mexican citizens are held at the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” jail in Florida, as local organizations and doctors call for the facility’s shuttering.
On Tuesday, a number of non-profit organizations held a press conference demanding the closure of the facility based in the rural Everglades region almost 40 miles (64km) from Miami, run by the state of Florida, to detain immigrants. According to advocates, the 39-acre camp now holds more than 1,000 men in “flood-prone” tents.
Sheinbaum said in an unrelated press conference that 14 of the people detained are confirmed Mexican nationals and she is seeking their repatriation.
“All arrangements are being made to ensure they are repatriated immediately to Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news conference.
The facility’s conditions are reportedly appalling, advocates say, with detained immigrants sleeping in overcrowded pods, along with sewage backups “resulting in cages flooded with feces”, and, in addition, “denial of medical care”.
Since the jail opened earlier this month, the Trump administration and local officials have specifically touted the brutality of the facility, including its remote location in a wetland surrounded by alligators, crocodiles, pythons and swarms of mosquitoes. Officials also appear to revel in the crude name the facility has been given, echoing the long-shut and notoriously harsh prison in San Francisco Bay.
In June, Florida authorities proposed the idea of building a temporary facility in the Everglades to assist in the state and the Trump administration’s push to arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
The facility was cobbled together in a matter of days and then Donald Trump soon visited, with the US president hailing its extreme environment. According to recent reporting from the Miami Herald, Florida’s governor has already committed more than $200m to private contractors for the facility’s operation.
Various reports from the facility have described awful conditions. Last week, it was revealed that a 15-year-old boy was held there for a number of days, despite claims by officials that only adults were detained. Journalists and lawmakers have experienced significant difficulty in accessing the facility. Earlier this month, a number of elected politicians visited and said there were “inhumane” conditions inside.
During Tuesday’s press conference, advocates and relatives of those detained decried the conditions.
“The detention conditions are unlivable. When you expose human beings to human waste in heat, in a hot environment, you propagate germs and therefore illnesses,” said Tessa Petit, the co-executive director of the Florida Immigration Coalition, CBS reported. “People in there have not been allowed to step outside of those cages.”
A woman, whose husband is detained in the facility, said that “due to the water, the rain that was here a couple of weeks ago, he has fungus on his feet”, CBS reported.
Florida officials have denied the allegations of “inhumane” treatment. The DHS did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
A Yale School of Public Health study said the area was swarming with over 7 billion mosquitoes, with many carrying viruses.
Advocates said that at least six people detained at the Everglades facility have been hospitalized, calling it a “public health crisis”. They are calling for the immediate evacuation of all detainees and for its closure.
