OCHOPEE, Fla. — After being denied entry to Alligator Alcatraz last week, Florida’s state and federal lawmakers have now been invited to tour the ICE detention center in the Everglades on Saturday.
So far, only one lawmaker from Northeast Florida has said they plan to attend.
State Representative Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) will tour the facility over the weekend.
She was part of the group that was denied entry last week.
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“We should all be appalled about what’s going on,” Nixon said during a press conference outside the detention center after being denied entry.
On Thursday, Nixon told us she wanted to see the conditions inside the facility with their own eyes.
“In regards to the lack of food that they’re offering them, the lack of showers that they are allowing them to take,” said Nixon.
Despite the new invitation from the Division of Emergency Management, Nixon said she is skeptical the tour will truly reflect the conditions experienced by detainees over the past two weeks.
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“But we’re going to ask the hard questions. I want to talk to detainees. I want to talk to the correctional officers. I want to talk to food vendors. I want to see what they don’t want us to see,” said Nixon.
Apart from Nixon, Action News Jax was unable to confirm whether any other local lawmakers would join the tour.
US Rep. John Rutherford (R- FL 5th District), US Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL 4th District), US Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL 3rd District), State Senator Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville), State Senator Tracie Davis (D-Jacksonville), State Senator Tom Leek (R-St. Augustine), State Rep. Dean Black (R-Yulee), State Rep. Jessica Baker (R-Jacksonville), State Rep. Wyman Duggan (R-Jacksonville), State Rep. Judson Sapp (R-Palatka) and State Rep. Kim Kendall (R-St. Augustine) all told Action News Jax they were unable to attend due to prior commitments.
Read: Florida lawmakers invited to tour Alligator Alcatraz after previous entry denial
We did not hear back from US Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL 6th District), State Senator Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island), State Rep. Kiyan Michael (R-Jacksonville Beach), State Rep. Sam Greco (R-Palm Coast), State Rep. Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island), State Rep. Chuck Brannan (R-Lake City), and State Rep. Kim Daniels (D-Jacksonville).
Action News Jax was among the first, and was the only local station, to get a sneak peek inside the facility just before it opened last Monday.
During our visit, we saw air-conditioned temporary structures, a dining hall, barracks, and portable restroom units with flushing toilets and running water.
A storm that blew through did result in some water flowing into the dining hall, which could be seen in the background as the Governor was talking to the press.
State officials have since indicated the issue has been fixed.
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“This has been well thought out, well planned, in an extremely short amount of time, but our Governor has done an amazing job at doing that,” said State Rep. Danny Nix (R-Port Charlotte), who does plan on attending the Saturday tour.
Unlike Nixon, the Republican lawmaker said he has high expectations for what he’ll see.
“At the end of the day, we want to be humane, but we’re not here to put a Ritz-Carlton, out there for anybody that’s in here illegally,” said Nix. ”That’s not what we’re supposed to be setting up, and that’s not the best use of our taxpayer dollars.”
Representative Nixon told Action News Jax that after the planned tour this weekend, she and her colleagues intend to make follow-up unannounced visits to Alligator Alcatraz, as part of their oversight responsibilities as state lawmakers.
She’s part of a lawsuit filed Thursday that alleges she and her fellow Democratic lawmakers were illegally denied entry to the facility last week.
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