> Lawmakers visited Alligator Alcatraz. Some say it left them with more questions
Lawmakers visited Alligator Alcatraz. Some say it left them with more questions
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Democratic lawmakers condemned Florida's new Everglades immigration detention center after visiting Saturday, describing it as crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested. Republicans on the same tour said they saw nothing of the sort at the remote facility that officials have dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz.”
The state-arranged tour came after some Democrats were blocked earlier from viewing the 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. So many state legislators and members of Congress turned up Saturday that they were split into multiple groups.
“There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat, told reporters after visiting the agglomeration of tents, trailers and temporary buildings. “This place is a stunt, and they’re abusing human beings here.”
Cage-style units of 32 men share three combination toilet-sink devices, the visitors measured the temperature at 83 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) in a housing area entranceway and 85 (29 Celsius) in a medical intake area, and grasshoppers and other insects abound, she and her fellow Florida Democrats said.
MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/alligator-alcatraz-lawmakers-tour/507-5c6380d4-c9dd-4fbc-8d31-1da9abf9826b