A south Florida man held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement described what it was like to be kept in Florida's Alligator Alcatraz detention facility for months.
CBS News reported that Maikel Rojas, 45, was detained by ICE when he showed up for a regular immigration appointment. Rojas might have appeared on ICE's radar because of a 2005 conviction for accessory to murder. He served 13 years in prison for the crime and has regularly checked in with immigration officials ever since.
Rojas spent five months at Alligator Alcatraz. He told the network that conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary. "We have no privacy. ... There are cameras over the toilets," Rojas said in Spanish to the outlet. "Thirty-two people share three toilets, so you can imagine the smell."
Rojas went on to say that food often arrived spoiled and he lost 45 pounds.
Alligator Alcatraz has been the subject of ongoing controversy throughout the Trump administration. A court action sought to close the Everglades-based facility, saying that it had not had a proper environmental impact review based on federal guidelines, Fox News noted.
However, on Tuesday, in a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it could stay open. At issue was whether the facility, which is run by Florida, should be considered a federal facility since it pertains to immigration.
"Florida, not federal, officials constructed the facility," the opinion states according to Fox. "They control the land and 'entirely' built the facility at state expense."
Judge Nancy Abudu dissented, writing that immigration was the federal government's responsibility. "The facility would not, and could not, have been built and used as an immigration detention center without the federal defendants' request," Abudu said, according to Fox. "The evidence of federal control perhaps is most apparent when we acknowledge that immigration remains uniquely and exclusively within the federal government's domain."
Friends of the Everglades said that despite the setback, they planned to continue the fight.
"This fight is far from over. Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost," said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. "We are pursuing every legal avenue available to right this wrong. Alligator Alcatraz will go down in history as a boondoggle to taxpayers and a flagrant assault on the Everglades, and we look forward to returning to the District Court to advance our case to shut it down."
