Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost is speaking out after touring the controversial Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, calling the conditions inside the facility “inhumane” and emotionally devastating.
Frost, a Democrat, joined a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers on Saturday after weeks of being denied access to the newly constructed facility. Their visit was finally granted following mounting pressure on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, including a lawsuit demanding transparency.
“When those doors opened, what I saw made my heart sink,” Frost said in a press conference after the tour. “Thirty-two people packed into each cage. Six cages under one tent. Most of them young men who looked like me, people my age.”
The congressman described a chaotic and sweltering scene where detainees cried out for help.
“People were yelling, ‘Help me, help me,’” he recalled. “One man in the back shouted, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen!’ As we walked away, they began chanting ‘Libertad, libertad’ — freedom.”
According to Frost, temperatures were stifling, with detainees drenched in sweat, many shirtless in an effort to stay cool. The food was minimal — reportedly just a small sandwich and a bag of chips — and drinking water was sourced from toilets.
“It’s not just inhumane. It’s disgusting,” he added. “That’s not how you treat anyone, regardless of their immigration status.”
Other Florida Democrats echoed his concerns, criticizing both the conditions and the rushed timeline under which the facility was built — just eight days — at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, deep in the Everglades.
“Even on a limited, sanitized tour it was clear: this is an internment camp,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “Our taxpayer dollars are being wasted to cruelly cage human beings.”
Schultz brought a manual thermostat on the tour and noted the medical area registered at 85 degrees. Meanwhile, Rep. Darren Soto pointed out the facility lacks working plumbing, requiring water to be trucked in.
“This location makes no sense,” Soto said bluntly. “It’s isolated, it’s sweltering, and it’s unfit.”
The Alligator Alcatraz facility has the capacity to detain nearly 4,000 individuals, although it currently houses around 900. The DeSantis administration has defended its purpose and conditions, claiming it meets or exceeds standards. But the backlash from lawmakers following the tour suggests the political fight over the center is just beginning.
