One visiting member, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, called conditions at the detention camp abhorrent. “When those doors opened .. what I saw made my heart sink.”
Last week, lawmakers were finally permitted to inspect the new Everglades detention camp in Florida, after being initially blocked from entering the site to conduct their oversight responsibilities. And while they apparently were blocked by camp officials from speaking directly to detained individuals, what they saw and heard still spoke to the abuses funded by our tax dollars and in our names.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25) described the site as an “internment camp” where detained men have been “packed” into what are essentially human holding pens. “Wall-to-wall humans. 32 detainees per cage,” she said. Another visiting lawmaker, Rep. Maxwell Frost (FL-10), called conditions at the detention camp abhorrent. “When those doors opened .. what I saw made my heart sink.”
“I saw 32 people per cage, about six cages in the one tent,” he said following his visit. “I saw a lot of people – young men who looked like me – people who were my age. People were yelling, ‘Help me, help me!’” Detained men “were sweating, some people had taken off the top of their clothing because it was just so hot,” he continued. “Some of them were drenched in sweat.”
Rep. Frost said he heard at least one person shockingly cry out that he was an American citizen. “I heard in the back someone say, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen!’ And as we were walking away, they started chanting ‘Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!’… ‘Freedom.'” Orlando Sentinel has reported that a DACA recipient is among those jailed at the detention camp, while hundreds of others similarly have no criminal record at all.
WATCH: “I didn’t see any Europeans who overstayed their visas — I saw all Latinos & Haitians in the cage.”Rep. @maxwellfrost.bsky.social talks about his visit to the Trump & Desantis Crocodile Concentration Camp on @jwilliamj8.bsky.social ’s show on TikTok
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-07-22T14:24:35.605Z
A group of state lawmakers had initially been blocked from inspecting the detention camp, where detained men have accused the camp of feeding them maggot-infested food, denying them access to water and necessary medications, forcing them to endure 24/7 lighting, and even blocking them from the ability to practice their faiths. “They took the Bible I had and they said here there is no right to religion,” said one man. “And my Bible is the one thing that keeps my faith, and now I’m losing my faith.”
But ahead of the limited inspection last week (lawmakers said they couldn’t step beyond the doorway of the cages, the Los Angeles Times reported), Florida state Rep Anna V. Eskamani “suggested the state cleaned up the facility” before finally granting them access, Florida Politics reported. “They allowed them to take a shower and gave them new clothes, and the food, all of a sudden it is better,” Rep. Eskamani said. “This is a show.”
This abuse is sadly a pattern. Immigrants being detained at three detention camps across Florida “are being subjected to inhuman conditions, including denial of medical care, overcrowding, and degrading treatment,” according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
“Staff were dismissive or abusive even when detainees were undergoing a visibly obvious medical crisis,” said the report. “For example, staff ignored a detained immigrant who began coughing blood in a crowded holding cell for hours. In that case, unrest ensued, and a Disturbance Control Team stormed the cell, forcing the men in it to lie face down on the wet, dirty floor while officers zip-tied their hands behind their backs. A detainee said he heard an officer order the cell’s CCTV camera feed to be turned off. Another detainee said a team member slapped him while shouting, ‘Shut the f*ck up.”
“Rosa,” a sexual assault survivor who was detained at the Krome North Service Processing Center and then the Broward Transitional Center before being deported back to Honduras in early July, told Human Rights Watch that she watched guards initially refuse to come to the aid of a woman who had collapsed.
“We started yelling for help, but the guards ignored us,” she said. “Finally, one officer approached slowly, looked at her without intervening, and then walked away. After that, it took eight minutes for the medical provider to arrive, and then another 15 or 20 before the rescue team came. By then, she was not moving.” Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old woman from Haiti, was pronounced dead at the scene. “Rosa said following Blaise’s death, BTC staff warned her and the other women to ‘stop making comments about things you don’t know,’ which Rosa perceived as an attempt to silence them.”
“During another incident, officers made men eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs after forcing the group to wait hours for lunch: ‘We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths, like dogs,’ one man said.” Recall that during the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump dehumanized immigrants as “not people” and “animals.”
Women held in male-only ICE facilities. People punished for seeking mental health care. Deaths that may have been linked to medical neglect. @hrw.org AI Justice & @sanctuarylegalservices.com call for urgent reforms to end these abuses. #ImmigrationDetention #HumanRights www.hrw.org/news/2025/07…
— Belkis Wille (@belkiswille.bsky.social) 2025-07-21T11:58:56.191Z
In a July 18 statement, eight members of Florida’s Congressional delegation, including Reps. Wasserman Schultz and Frost, called for the closure of the Everglades detention camp, which is facing a lawsuit from environmental groups alleging that the detention camp is part of a “reckless plan” that threatens the local ecosystem, including endangered species. “The proposed plan has gone through no environmental review as required under federal law, and the public has had no opportunity to comment,” said Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.
“The Everglades Detention Center is a danger to federal agents, the Florida National Guard, ICE detainees, and others, as it is built on a flood plain and can only withstand a Category 2 hurricane,” said signatory U.S. Rep. Darren Soto (FL-9). “ On top of that, ICE detainees are held in inhumane, crowded, hot, and unsanitary conditions—32 to a cage, 83-degree temperatures, non-functioning toilets, and mosquito-infested conditions. This facility should be shut down immediately.”
Public opinion is swinging against the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies, with nearly 60% of Americans disapproving of its use of detention facilities, according to a recent CBS News poll. Trump’s overall immigration approval is now underwater by double-digits in recent polling. One proposal introduced by the current House majority would only double-down on mass detention by imposing potential life imprisonment for migration offenses – and to the financial benefit of private prison companies that make their money off human misery.
Among those advocating for individuals jailed at Everglades is Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, who prayed the rosary outside the detention camp on July 20, Jesuit magazine America reported. “In his post, Archbishop Wenski noted that the Archdiocese of Miami ‘is still waiting for approval to access’ Alligator Alcatraz ‘to provide Mass for detainees.’” He reiterated that these are folks just trying to create better lives for themselves and their families.
“They’re basically people that have tried to, through hard work, create a future of hope for themselves and their children,” Archbishop Wenski said. “And as such, they have contributed to the prosperity of our nation. And some have done so for years, even decades … There’s no home to go back to, because home is here.”
