Florida lawmakers get guided tour of Alligator Alcatraz in Everglades

A group of Florida lawmakers arrives at the Alligator Alcatraz on Saturday morning in the Everglades. (Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.)

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A group of lawmakers participated in a guided tour of Alligator Alcatraz, a detention center for undocumented migrants, on Saturday in the Florida Everglades.

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U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the other lawmakers arrived at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and entered a white tent.

This is an aerial image of a detainee on Saturday morning at the Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades. (Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.)

Florida Rep. Ashley Gantt had filed a lawsuit against DeSantis after five Democratic state lawmakers were denied access on July 3.

Relatives of detainees have reported their loved ones are trapped in unsanitary conditions. Officials contest that the 3,000-bed facility is functional.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is using the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport to run the Alligator Alcatraz. Miami-Dade County owns the airstripin Collier County. (Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.)

DeSantis paved the way for the facility when he declared a state of emergency in Florida related to illegal migration in 2023.

Texas-based IRG Global Emergency Management is the contractor working with Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, at the detention center.

An aerial view showed a white trailer with an FDEM sign. There was a Cheney Bros, Inc., trailer and a yellow Penske cargo van parked near the rows of tents.

A Cheney Bros trailer was near a row of white tents at the Alligator Alcatraz on Saturday in the Florida Everglades. (Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.)

This is a developing story.


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