JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Alligator Alcatraz is now open with its first group of undocumented immigrant detainees housed in Florida’s Everglades.
However, some Jacksonville-based organizations and state representatives are now speaking out against the massive immigration detention facility.
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“We asked to have our school systems, our public school system, fully funded. We asked to ensure that we had mental health work programs for first responders, as well as for our teenagers. And guess what, Governor DeSantis, a few days before he threw up this makeshift detention camp? He vetoed a ton of appropriations to address those issues,” Florida State Representative Angie Nixon complained to Action News Jax Saturday.
Action News Jax showed up close this week as President Donald Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis, and other state and federal officials toured the new facility, surrounded by alligator-infested waters.
Later in the week, Representative Nixon went to the Everglades and tried to visit the facility herself. She and others raised concerns about the conditions for both the detainees and officers working there.
While Nixon says she was turned away due to what was cited as safety concerns, federal officials reassured Tuesday that the facility is held to the highest safety standards for its detainees.
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“A higher standard than is required at the state levels, at local department of corrections facilities, sheriff’s offices,” explained Kristi Noem, with the US Department of Homeland Security. “This is a state-of-the-art facility.”
“If they had safety concerns for us going in there, then they should definitely have safety concerns for those folks that they detained without due process,” Representative Nixon expressed.
Now, Representative Nixon says she’d like to see Alligator Alcatraz shut down, with plans for a new immigration facility like it in Camp Blanding put to rest.
Nixon is also demanding improved transparency from the facilities in the meantime.
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“We have a statutory right to be able to enter into any facility that is run by the state as it relates to being a detention center, and they denied us that,” Representative Nixon claimed Saturday. “They broke the law.”
Action News Jax reached out to both the governor and the state attorney’s office for a response to Representative Nixon’s access being denied and the legality of it.
We are still awaiting a response.
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