After its grand launch, ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida, Trump’s ambitious project became quite the talk of the nation. Users on X (formerly Twitter) posted images of the facility, including a snap of President Donald Trump and his administration visiting the site and trying to portray it as a massive achievement.
The facility, which was built in just over eight days, is on abandoned airport land. It was built as part of the Trump administration’s infamous mass deportation policies, where thousands who entered the USA illegally were detained, arrested, or deported. While viral snaps made the facility look fabulous, environmentalists scrutinized its location in May 2025 (it’s built between the Everglades, a natural habitat to several reptiles and wildlife).
ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ: MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/kfMZuMwc9N
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 1, 2025
In July, the first member of Generation Z to serve in Congress, Rep. Maxwell Frost, exposed harrowing conditions at the newly opened migrant detention center during his visit. Sadly, apart from some social media backlash, nobody took Frost’s words seriously as he voiced his concerns through a TikTok video. He described hundreds of grown men crammed into chain-link cages beneath white tents, each cage holding 32 people with only three toilets.
Presently, as of October, The Daily Beast has reported brutal details of detainee conditions at Florida’s controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center, following a courtroom fight over access to legal counsel and treatment standards.
A pet project pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis, the facility opened on July 1, 2025. Almost immediately, serious allegations emerged: claims of physical and emotional abuse, which include serving the detainees spoiled food, limited access to hygiene, and rampant heat and insect problems.
Civil rights lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit arguing that detainees are denied fundamental legal rights. While people knew that the property had rows of metal bunk beds encaged in barbed wire fences, which meant people were kept like animals, they weren’t aware that criminals who arrived at the location received a handbook of rules distributed on arrival.
The handbook detailed strict regulations and a color-coded uniform system based on their criminal history and other details, such as how to avoid different types of abuse. Detainees are reportedly allowed to keep only essential religious or medical items and are warned not to speak or move during scheduled headcounts, which are incredibly strict. They are not allowed to talk or interfere during counts, or they could be sent to a solitary housing unit.
They are provided basic personal hygiene items, such as soap, shampoo, bedsheets, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, a blanket, a mattress, and a towel. The entire regime is worse than a military camp, and people are gobsmacked after learning about it. In addition, breakfast is served early (5:30 a.m.), and food cannot be taken outside the dining area.
The Alligator Alcatraz compound reportedly includes 200 surveillance cameras, over 400 staff, and a capacity for 3,000 detainees. If you thought that was it, no! There’s more, and it only gets worse.
Civil rights attorneys are actively pursuing multiple legal challenges, including allegations that detainees are denied access to legal counsel. Attorneys claim they’ve been blocked from visiting clients, and these residents have no proper way to submit their paperwork and forward their cases.
One Venezuelan detainee described life there as “inhuman,” expressing concern over pressure to sign self-deportation papers. Yet, federal officials and MAGA members from the Trump administration have strongly denied these claims. They believe this kind of arrangement for immigrants is necessary to keep them in place.
I’m ashamed that anyone could treat anyone this way. Without even knowing their statistics background. I thought we were America, not some 3rd. country.